


Tall Tales

by Twilight684



Category: Supernatural
Genre: (Sequel currently in progress), Angst, Canon Related, Episode Tag, Falling In Love, M/M, Sabriel - Freeform, Season 2, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 03:04:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6312832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight684/pseuds/Twilight684
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a job quite unusual even for them, Sam finds himself falling for the odd yet charming janitor at Crawford Hall. What happens when Sam finds out the man isn't really what he appears to be? My take on what should have happened during season 2 ep. 15 Tall Tales. SamxGabriel - don't like don't read. You've been warned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

            Sam was quiet as they made their way up to the janitor just for him and Dean to flash him a couple of fake business cards while Dean smoothly told him that they were there to work on some of the wiring in the building. He wasn’t exactly in the best of moods at the moment since Dean had been slowly getting on his nerves that day, and he just didn’t want to risk saying something that would have Dean bitching at him and annoying him even more, so he kept his mouth shut and let Dean do the talking.

            “Electricians, huh? You two don’t really look the type,” the man told them as he looked them over, his eyes lingering on Sam a bit longer than was normal before he shrugged and unlocked the building just to lead them inside and up to the fourth floor. “Either way, can’t say I’m complaining that you’re here since there have been a few people complaining about the lights around here, and I don’t see why they bitch to me about it when that’s not my job.”

            Sam smiled. “So how long have you been working here?” he asked curiously.

            “Hmm… I’ve been mopping this floor for six years,” the man replied as he brought them up to the professor’s room and unlocked it for them. “There you go, guys,” he told them as he followed them into the room.

            Sam looked around for a moment before bringing out the EMF detector and turning it on, looking to the janitor when the man asked him what it was for. “Just finding wires in the walls,” he told him, furrowing his brows when he looked back to the man just to see he appeared to be staring at his ass.

            The man gave a small smile when he noticed Sam giving him a questioning look, “Ah, well…not sure why you’re wiring up this office. Not going to do the professor much good,” he mumbled.

            “Oh yeah, why’s that…” Dean’s eyes flicked down to the name on the man’s uniform, “Gabe?”

            “He’s dead,” the janitor replied simply.

            “Oh? What happened?”

            Gabe pointed to the window over by the professor’s desk. “He went out that window right there,” he replied, a small smirk on his face as Dean made his way over to said window just to check it out.

            “Yeah? Were you working that night?” Sam asked curiously, blinking when he noticed the guy was standing a little closer than what was necessary.

            “I’m the one who found him.”

            “You see it happen?” Sam questioned.

            “Nope. I just saw him come up here, and, uh…” he trailed off with a small chuckle.

            “What?”

            “He wasn’t alone.”

            “Who was he with?” Dean asked curiously, Sam rolling his eyes as he noticed his brother had found something to snack on.

            “He was with a young woman. I told the cops about her but I guess they never found her,” Gabe said simply.

            “So you saw this girl go in, but did you ever see her come out?” Sam asked curiously.

            The man seemed to think about it for a moment. “…Now that you mention it, no.”

            “You ever see her around before?”

            “Well, not her.”

            “What do you mean?” Dean asked with his mouth full, which for some reason was starting to annoy Sam all over again.

            “I don’t mean to cast aspersions on a dead guy, but, uh…Mr. Morality here? He brought a lot of girls up here-got more ass than a toilet seat,” he joked.

            Sam felt his eye twitch a bit when Dean suddenly laughed, but he smiled at the janitor when he noticed the guy giving him a rather charming smile. “One more thing. This building only has four stories right?”

            Gabe nodded. “Yeah.”

            “So there wouldn’t be a room six six nine?”

            “Course not. Why do you ask?”

            “Just curious. Thanks, Gabe. We’ll be out of here as soon as we can.”

            The man smiled again. “Well just let me know when you boys are ready to head out. I have a few more rooms to take care of on the first floor before I’m done for the night anyways.”

            Sam nodded just to let out a relieved sigh once the guy was gone, arching a brow when he turned and noticed Dean smirking at him. “What?”

            “Dude, that guy was totally checking you out,” Dean laughed.

            Sam blinked. So it really hadn’t just been his imagination.

            “And what the hell was up with you? Smiling and hanging onto his every word like a damn schoolgirl? I mean, did you two take your eyes off of each other even once?” Dean teased.

            “Shut up, jerk.”

            “Bitch.”

            Sam let out an aggravated sigh just to turn away from his brother. He just really wasn’t wanting to deal with this right now… Dean was obviously only joking about it but, really, Sam had to admit he’d noticed Gabe was watching him the most, and Sam couldn’t deny that the man had captured his attention-the guy had one hell of a smile after all. Of course, he really didn’t need Dean to know that considering he got enough crap from the jerk as it was. It was just better if Dean didn’t know his preferences so things wouldn’t go from joking to flat out weird between them.

            He tried to ignore Dean for the rest of the time they were looking around in the office, and by the time they’d made it back downstairs Gabe was at the door and already changed into jeans and a t-shirt.

            Sam couldn’t help but give the guy a once-over, his eyes lingering a bit on the man’s ass since the jeans he was wearing looked a little tight in all the right places.

            “Hey, what do you know? I was just about to head upstairs to see if you guys were done. I don’t like staying here longer than I have to so let’s hurry and get out of here, yeah?”

            Sam quickly followed Dean out of the building and they were heading back to the car when he suddenly heard an engine sputtering and he looked to see Gabe seemed to be having some trouble getting his car started.

            “Oh come on!” the man groaned as he popped the hood and got out of the car just to take a look.

            Since Sam knew a bit about cars from Dean and their dad he decided Dean could wait for a few extra minutes, and he made his way over to the man. “Hey. Need a hand?”

            Gabe looked up at him in surprise. “Yeah, actually. Thanks. Heh, thought you and your buddy would’ve left already.”

            Sam shrugged as he pulled a flashlight out of his jacket and leaned over the engine. “We didn’t get to the car yet and I heard someone having car trouble.”

            “Well ain’t I just lucky then?”

            Sam could hear a smile in the man’s voice and when he glanced over to the guy he could’ve sworn he saw him staring at his ass again. “Lucky for you it just looks like your only problem is the battery.”

            “Oh? Damn… I must’ve left my lights on again. Maybe you could jump me then,” Gabe said with a sly smirk.

            Sam licked his lips as the guy moved a little closer. “Uh…actually one of the cables is loose,” he told him just to reach in and fix it. “That should do it.”

            Gabe didn’t lose his smile as he made his way back into his car just to easily start it up. “Oooh, my hero. Why don’t you let me buy you a drink sometime as thanks?”

            Sam opened his mouth to reply just to jump when he suddenly heard a car horn coming from somewhere behind him.

            “Hurry the hell up, Sam! What the hell are you doing?” Dean shouted impatiently.

            “Someone’s in a hurry,” Gabe chuckled. “So, what do you say about that drink, Sammy?”

            “I think I’d like that,” Sam told him, surprised he wasn’t angry someone other than Dean just called him Sammy.

            “Great.”

            Sam arched a brow as the guy pulled a pen from his pocket just to grab his hand and start writing something down.

            “Why don’t you meet me here tomorrow night if you’re not busy,” Gabe suggested with a wink.

            The hunter found himself smiling as he made his way back to the Impala, ignoring his brother when he started bitching about him holding them up.

            “What the hell were you doing?”

            “Nothing.”

            “Yeah right. What the hell took so long then?”

            “I thought I saw something, but it turned out to be nothing.”

            Dean gave him a look that told him he didn’t exactly believe him, but at least he let it drop so Sam was thankful for that at least. Maybe they could make it the rest of the night without Dean getting on his nerves any more than he already had that day.

            Apparently that was a stupid assumption to make since Sam felt a headache coming on as they pulled into the motel, Dean’s stupid music still ringing in his ears from how loud the bastard had it turned up, and it didn’t help that Dean was still sticking to the theory that the professor at Crawford Hall had been killed by some kind of spirit.

            He shook his head. “It can’t be, Dean. There were no traces of EMF anywhere,” he told him as he opened the door to their room and made his way inside.

            “True…and that room six six nine is a load of crap…” Dean agreed.

            “So maybe the professor was just a jumper and this legend about some ghost girl in the school is just a load of crap. Wouldn’t be the first time we had a case that turned out to be a bust, Dean.”

            “I don’t know, Sam. I mean, the girl the janitor described was pretty weird,” Dean countered as he pulled a beer out of the fridge and opened it up. “We ought to check out the history on the building and see if any co-ed ganked herself there.”

            “…Yeah, you’re right,” Sam admitted as he grabbed his laptop and opened it up, blinking in surprise to see the screen frozen on some porn site. “Dude! Were you on my computer?!” Sam asked in aggravation.

            Dean froze. “…No.”

            “Oh really? ‘Cause it’s frozen now. On Busty Asian Beauties dot com.”

            Dean gave him a nervous smile just to quickly turn and retreat into the bathroom.

            “Dean! Would you… Just don’t touch my stuff anymore, ok?!” Sam snapped just to start trying to force his computer to turn off and back on so he could try and fix it…again!

            Why the hell did his brother have to be such a dick all the damn time?! If it wasn’t for the fact that he was tired and they’d just made it back to the motel, he would’ve left and gone for a walk or something. As it was, he was stuck trying to fix his computer so he could do some more research on Crawford Hall.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam hadn’t been sure what to expect the next morning since he hadn’t been able to find anything about any deaths in the college involving a young woman, but what he hadn’t expected was for Dean to start claiming he obviously hadn’t looked good enough. Since Sam really didn’t do well with insults so early in the morning he told Dean he was going for a walk and quickly left the motel room.

            He had just started to head down a path in the local park when he suddenly felt something hit him in the back of the head and he quickly turned, his hand going for the gun tucked into his belt just to freeze when he saw a tennis ball laying at his feet. He furrowed his brows and knelt down to pick it up just to suddenly have a dog come out of nowhere and jump on him.

            “Oreo! What have I told you about jumping on people!” a familiar voice shouted.

            Sam looked up to see Gabe making his way over with a leash, and he found himself smiling. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

            “Well it **is** a park. Last I checked that meant anyone could come here,” the man replied as he made his way over to him, stopping in front of him just to cross his arms and look down at him.

            The hunter chuckled. “I meant that it’s Wednesday.”

            “And? What, I can’t enjoy my Wednesday in the park like any other person?”

            “Don’t you have work?”

            Gabe chuckled. “It just so happens I have the day off today. I’m not the only janitor Crawford Hall has you know.”

            “Oh? That why you wanted me to meet up with you for drinks tonight?”

            “Maybe.”

            Sam blinked as he suddenly felt his cheek being licked, and he chuckled just to reach out and pet the dog that was happily wagging its tail as it nudged his arm with its head. “Hey, buddy. I guess this is yours, huh?” he asked as he held the tennis ball up, laughing as the dog barked. He gave the ball a toss and watched as the dog ran off just to look up at Gabe in surprise when he noticed the man holding a hand out to him.

            He smiled as he took the offered hand and got to his feet. “Thanks. So I take it the dog’s yours?”

            “No, I always walk through the park with random dogs,” Gabe said sarcastically as he pulled a sucker out of his jacket just to open it up and pop it into his mouth.

            “Ha ha…” Sam mumbled, arching a brow when he noticed the man wasn’t leaving. It wasn’t like the guy was bothering him or anything, but honestly he just didn’t know what the hell to really say… He was a bit out of practice when it came to flirting with guys since he hadn’t hooked up with a guy since before Jessica.

            He nervously cleared his throat as they walked. “So…you make it home ok last night?”

            “As a matter of fact I did. No more car troubles thankfully,” the man replied with a smile.

            “That’s good…”

            Ok, so Sam really wasn’t sure why this was so difficult for him. Seriously, Dean picked people up all the time, so why the hell was it so hard for Sam to think of something to say? Sure, he hadn’t had to try to come up with things to say after he and Jess had gotten together, but surely he wasn’t that rusty at this already.

            “You know what?” Gabe piped up after several minutes of unbreakable silence. “I haven’t had breakfast yet since Oreo wanted to go for an early walk this morning. You want to join me? I know a diner that makes the best pancakes.”

            Sam was honestly a little surprised at the sudden offer, but he was hungry since he’d left the motel pretty quick that morning so he didn’t really see a problem with it. “Sure. I could eat.”

            “Great!” Gabe whistled just for Oreo to come running back to them. “Come on, girl, you’ve had enough park time,” he said as he hooked the leash onto her collar.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            “I’ll have a short stack of chocolate chip pancakes with extra chocolate chips and a side of bacon,” Gabe said simply just to hand the menu back to the waitress. “And I’ll take a cup of hot chocolate with that.”

            Sam stared at the man in surprise for a moment just to shake his head and look to the waitress. “I’ll just have a fruit salad and a cup of coffee, black.”

            Gabe shook his head and waited until the waitress left before he laughed. “A fruit salad? Really? I bring you here for pancakes and you go with a fruit salad?”

            “What? There’s nothing wrong with a healthy breakfast, and besides that it’s better than what you just ordered.”

            “And what’s wrong with what I ordered? I ordered a perfectly normal breakfast.”

            “Yeah, with like a mountain of chocolate to go with it,” Sam chuckled, his breath hitching when he saw the man giving him another dazzling smile.

            “That’s the perks of pancakes, Sammy. You can throw chocolate on top and no one can say anything about it since it goes great together. Why do you think kids love pancakes so much? It’s the best way to get away with having sweets for breakfast.”

            Sam opened his mouth to comment on that just to blink when his phone started going off in his pocket, and he rolled his eyes as he saw Dean’s name on the caller ID. “What?”

            “What do you mean, what? Where the hell are you? You left me stuck here with all the damn research!”

            “Well now you know how I feel when you do that to me. Besides, I already told you it was a waste of time.”

            “Quit being a bitch and get back here. I got a lead on something else that happened at the school last night.”

            “Great, I’ll be there as soon as I’m finished with breakfast,” Sam told him, hanging up before Dean could say anything back.

            Gabe arched a brow but didn’t say anything since the waitress came back with their drinks. Once she was gone again his eyes flicked over to Sam, causing the hunter to shiver under his intense gaze. “Was that your buddy from the night before?”

            “Yeah. We got another call.”

            “Sure you don’t have to head out then?”

            “It can wait for a little while. If not then he can do it himself.”

            Sam thanked the waitress as she made her way over with their food before he looked back over to his friend. He arched a brow as he noticed the guy drowning his pancakes in syrup and whipped cream. He was about to offer him a napkin when he noticed he had a bit of whipped cream on his fingers, but apparently Gabe had other plans.

            Sam licked his lips, his pants starting to feel a little tight as he watched Gabe teasingly bring his fingers to his lips and suck them into his mouth while staring straight at him.

            “Want some?” the man asked with a smile as he held up the can of whipped cream.

            “I’m good,” Sam choked out.

            Gabe shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

            Sam tried not to watch the man as he ate, though it was a little difficult not to look at him when he was moaning like those pancakes were the best thing in the world. Seriously, the noises coming from him were really starting to get to him, and the way Gabe kept looking at him like he was imagining he was the damn pancakes was making it even worse!

            He supposed the stupidest thing he could’ve done was reach over when he noticed Gabe had a bit of whipped cream on the side of his mouth. It wasn’t that Gabe freaked out about it, on the contrary, the teasing bastard actually turned his head a bit and sucked Sam’s thumb into his mouth while giving him a searing look.

            Gabe honestly left nothing to the imagination by the way he was wrapping his tongue around Sam’s thumb and sucking at it, and he had to bite back a moan as his cock twitched in interest.

            By the time they’d both finished breakfast Sam could practically feel the air crackling around them from the sexual tension, and the way Gabe’s eyes were burning a hole through him wasn’t helping. He watched as Gabe threw some money down on the table just to slide out of the booth.

            “Care to walk with me to my car before you take off?” the man asked curiously.

            It was then that Sam remembered he’d just talked to Dean about half an hour ago and he should be hurrying back to the motel before his brother called to bitch him out again…but he really wasn’t in any hurry to get away from Gabe just yet. He offered a smile as he got to his feet and walked out with him, licking his lips as his eyes roamed over Gabe’s ass as he bent over to untie his dog from the light post.

            He took a shaky breath when Gabe righted himself and looked back at him, a predatory look in his eyes. “You coming?” he asked with a smirk just to suggestively wiggle his eyebrows.

            Normally when someone gave Sam a look like that it put him on alert and made him wary of said person just because it wouldn’t be completely impossible for some kind of supernatural creature to try and get him alone just to rip his heart out of his chest or something… But with Gabe it just had him wanting to throw the guy up against the nearest possible surface and start ripping his clothes off.

            He shook his head to clear his thoughts since there was no way he had the time for something like that right now, but no matter how much he told himself he had to get back to Dean he couldn’t find the will to tell Gabe he had to go. Once they’d made it to the man’s car Sam had been prepared to part ways with a promise of meeting up later for drinks still, but before he could do as planned he found himself being grabbed by the front of his shirt and pulled down into a fierce kiss.

            Sam’s response was immediate as he took advantage of their height difference to push the guy back up against his car, an arm wrapping around Gabe’s waist while the other made its way up to tug at his hair as he slipped his tongue past the man’s lips, moaning into their kiss as their tongues battled for dominance.

            He slipped his knee between the man’s legs and teasingly pressed against his obvious arousal as he broke their kiss just to pull Gabe’s head back and start nibbling down his neck.

            “Sam!” Gabe moaned loudly just for Sam to feel the man’s hands moving down his body and stopping at his hips to pull him close. “I think…we should…get in the car,” he panted heavily.

            Sam couldn’t agree more and quickly opened the back door just to push Gabe into the backseat and crawl in over top of him, pulling the door shut behind them as he did so. He gasped as he felt a hand on the back of his neck just to be pulled down to the man’s lips once again, teeth clashing together and tongues dancing once more as his hands moved to start ripping open Gabe’s shirt, hearing the sound of buttons being ripped off but not giving a damn as he slowly ground his hips down into the sexy brunette underneath him.

            He broke their kiss when he felt his shirt being pulled up over his head, locking their lips back together once the annoying piece of clothing was out of the way. He braced a hand against the window as he trailed the other down the man’s chest, his nails lightly raking over his nipples and down his stomach to the hem of his pants as he felt Gabe impatiently undoing his belt.

            The hunter pulled back a bit and stared down at the flushed, panting man underneath him just to eagerly undo Gabe’s pants and pull them off of him along with his boxers before a hand found its way between the brunette’s legs and he wrapped his fingers around his hard, throbbing flesh. His eyes darkened in lust as Gabe’s head fell back and his body arched up into him as a loud moan fell from his lips and his hips gave a small jerk.

            Sam’s breathing was starting to get heavy as he slowly stroked him, and he leaned down to teasingly trail his teeth down the man’s chest, stopping to swirl his tongue around a pert nipple.

            “Shit, Sam!” Gabe moaned, hands urgently tugging at the hunter’s pants. “Get these fucking pants out of the way!” he growled huskily.

            A shiver shot down Sam’s spine at the commanding tone and he immediately complied and helped get his pants off before he found Gabe’s legs wrapping around his waist and pulling him flush against him, moaning with Gabe as their cocks teasingly slid together. He gasped as he suddenly felt a hot mouth sucking at the pulse point on his neck, and he tightly gripped the man’s hips and roughly ground their hips together as Gabe let out another filthy moan.

            He blinked as he suddenly felt something being pushed against his chest while Gabe moved to suck one of his nipples into his mouth, teeth lightly tugging as those sinful hips ground up against him. He reached up and grabbed whatever it was from Gabe’s hand, furrowing his brows in confusion to find a small bottle of lube and wondering where the hell that had come from because he hadn’t even seen the man reach anywhere for it.

            “Fuck me, Sam,” Gabe growled in his ear just to nip at a soft spot behind said ear.

            Sam groaned as he quickly popped the cap off of the bottle and poured the cool liquid into his hand. He thoroughly coated his fingers just to move back enough to slip his hand between the man’s legs and teasingly probe at his entrance, and he slipped a finger inside as he started trailing open-mouthed kisses down Gabe’s chest and stomach. The man’s moans encouraged him to quickly add a second finger and start stretching him open as he teasingly nipped at the soft flesh under his bellybutton.

            “Oh fucking hell!” Gabe suddenly moaned just to start eagerly thrusting his hips back onto Sam’s fingers, Sam smirking against his skin as he realized he’d found what he’d been looking for.

            He quickly curled his fingers and added a third just to sharply thrust them into the man’s prostate, a wave of desire washing over him as Gabe’s head thrashed about and his nails dug into his arms. He licked his way back up his body just to suck on the pulse at the man’s neck, groaning at the salty-sweet taste of his skin.

            “Dammit, Sam, please!” Gabe begged through gritted teeth as he eagerly pressed back against the hunter’s fingers. “Can’t take much more.”

            Sam quickly obliged, pulling his hand back just to stroke himself a couple of times and slick himself up. He licked his lips as he felt Gabe’s legs wrapping around his waist once more and pulling him close just to move a hand down to the man’s hip as he led himself to his entrance and slowly started to push inside. He carefully watched Gabe’s face as he tightly gripped onto his hips and eased inside, gritting his teeth as he felt the man’s nails digging into his back as he arched up into him.

            “Don’t worry…about hurting me…and just fucking move!” Gabe growled out, his head soon falling back in ecstasy as Sam suddenly snapped his hips and roughly thrust into him. His eyes squeezed shut, and for a moment Sam was worried he’d hurt the man until he felt him eagerly moving his hips and softly begging for more.

            He didn’t have to be told twice. The hunter moved his hands around to the man’s firm backside, pulling him up off of the seat and giving another sharp thrust into him.

            “Oh fuck! Right there! Fuck, Sam, right there!” the man practically screamed as his nails clawed at Sam’s back just to start repeatedly moaning Sam’s name in pleasure.

            Sam snapped his hips a little more roughly, amazed that Gabe’s screams of pleasure seemed to be getting louder the rougher he got, and he slid a hand up the man’s sweat-slicked back just to tangle his fingers in his soft locks and tug his head back as his lips moved to attack his lover’s neck.

            For the longest time all that could be heard was the sound of loud moans, lips kissing and sucking at exposed flesh, and the distinct sound of skin slapping against skin as a few curses slipped out every now and then, and Sam never wanted it to stop.

            “Sammy! So close!” Gabe finally moaned just to let out a strangled cry as Sam suddenly slipped a hand between them to stroke him in time with their movements. He suddenly cried out, his hot release spilling onto Sam’s hand and both of their stomachs.

            The hunter loudly cursed as he felt Gabe’s tight walls spasming around him, and it only took a few more quick thrusts before he followed him over the edge, moaning Gabe’s name as he did so. He gave a few more thrusts to work them through their orgasms before he carefully removed himself from the man and wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him close as he placed soft kisses to his shoulder.

            “Damn, Sammy… Don’t think…anyone’s ever had me…screaming like that before…” Gabe panted heavily.

            Sam lightly chuckled against his lover’s skin just to pull back a bit and stare down into those dazed, golden-brown orbs. He wasn’t sure what he had been about to say as he stared into those hypnotic eyes, and he soon found himself being pulled down into a soft kiss, a hand moving up to the back of the man’s head as he kissed back just as softly. All of their earlier urgency was gone, replaced by the sudden need to slowly explore and taste, and it was only now that he realized Gabe still tasted like the chocolate chip pancakes he’d eaten at the diner but also something that was purely the man himself.

            He found himself smiling as Gabe hummed into their kiss and he felt arms wrapping around his neck to pull him closer. He groaned when he heard his cell phone going off and he reluctantly broke their kiss just to grab his pants and reach into the pocket. He glared at the phone to see Dean was calling him, and he let out an aggravated sigh just to flip the phone open and bring it to his ear. “What is it, Dean?”

            “Dude, what the fuck?! I’ve called you like ten times now! I was starting to think something happened to you!” Dean shouted furiously.

            Sam rolled his eyes. He was about to snap back just for his breath to hitch and his eyes to flutter closed as he felt soft lips trailing along his neck. “S-Sorry… Didn’t hear it go off… Been a little busy…” he said truthfully.

            “With what?! It doesn’t take two hours to eat breakfast, especially not with what you eat for breakfast! I even went looking for you, and when I found the diner you were at they said you left with some guy. When I couldn’t find you I thought something happened to you!”

            “Dude, I’m fine. Just ‘cause I don’t answer the phone it doesn’t mean something’s wrong. I got a little sidetracked. It’s not like you’ve never gotten distracted before. Just chill out and I’ll be back soon,” Sam told him just to hang up.

            “Thought you said your partner could take care of things without you,” Gabe reminded him.

            “Yeah, well, apparently he doesn’t want to. I should go before he loses it,” Sam told him just to place another soft kiss to the man’s lips. “So, are we still on for drinks tonight?”

            “Sure your _partner_ won’t get pissy if you sneak out on him again?”

            Sam chuckled at the man’s accusing tone. “My **brother** has no say over what I do, so he can deal with it.”

            “Then I guess I’ll be seeing you later tonight,” Gabe said softly just to pull the hunter into one last kiss.


	2. Chapter 2

            Gabriel took a shaky breath once he found himself alone in the car, and he honestly couldn’t grasp what the hell had just happened. He hadn’t planned for this to happen… As soon as Sam and Dean showed up at Crawford Hall he had recognized them immediately and knew exactly what they were there for, so he’d planned on using the annoyance and frustration Sam and Dean were already feeling towards each other to get them at each other’s throats. Unfortunately it had seemed that the angel was unable to stop flirting with the youngest Winchester, and when Sam had started flirting back it was a rather pleasant surprise.

            He had planned on leaving it at that but hadn’t been able to resist inviting the hunter over for a drink since there was just something about him that seemed to be tugging at him. Then he had to go and run into Sam again in the park earlier, and instead of thinking of a way to get him furious with Dean he’d flirted some more and invited him to join him for breakfast!

            It wasn’t like he was disappointed with how that had turned out since it had been quite some time since he’d last had someone touch him like that, and even then he didn’t think anyone had ever had him feeling as though every nerve ending in his vessel was on fire. Hell, he’d almost lost his control at the end there and nearly let out a shout in his real voice, and lord knows that would’ve been a rather difficult one to explain to Sam.

            If that wasn’t bad enough the trickster had found himself doing something extremely out of character for him. Instead of giving Sam a small push to have him getting more angry and annoyed with Dean when his brother called, he’d actually used his power to calm the younger man down! If that had been anyone else Gabriel would have taken full advantage of the moment and used his grace to add to the annoyance Sam was feeling so that a full out fight would break out.

            He closed his eyes and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

            Why was Sam Winchester having such an effect on him? His whole body was still buzzing from where the hunter’s hands caressed him, his lips still tingling from the heated kisses, and instead of being sated and able to focus on other things his mind was clouded with thoughts of Sam.

            When he first saw the Winchester brothers he had wanted to get them out of the way as quickly as possible so he could get back to giving people their just desserts, but now he was trying to think of more ways to spend time with the young hunter.

            The angel let out a troubled sigh before snapping his fingers and finally taking himself home, making his way into his room and plopping down on the bed. Maybe just one day of not working wouldn’t be so bad. Sam did say he was still going to be seeing him later that night, so maybe if he could get Sam annoyed enough at Dean he could make sure the younger hunter stayed with him that night. Surely if he did that he would feel like he’d had enough time with the guy so that he could get back to more important things…right?

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam was feeling great by the time he made it back to the motel, his body still buzzing from his encounter with Gabe, and he couldn’t stop smiling even when he made his way into the room and Dean started yelling at him.

            “What the hell were you doing so long?!” Dean snapped.

            _“Gabe,”_ Sam thought to himself just to shrug. “Nothing really. I went for a walk, stopped by a diner for breakfast, and then I got a little sidetracked on the way back.”

            “Yeah? With what? It’s not like you to take your sweet time when we have more important things to do. Not only that, but who was the guy you were with?”

            “…Gabe.”

            Dean arched a brow. “Gabe?”

            “The janitor from last night.”

            “What the hell were you doing with that guy?”

            “You know…just getting some information on Crawford Hall. I mean, the guy’s been working there for six years, so I thought maybe he’d know if there were any other strange deaths in the school,” Sam said simply, mentally slapping himself since it really would’ve been a good opportunity to question the guy about the school.

            “Uh-huh… So, what? You just ran into this guy and decided taking him out for some breakfast would be a better way to get more information out of him than what we already got last night?”

            “He’s the one that invited me out for breakfast. I just thought it’d be a good idea to take advantage of the situation.”

            “Right… So what’d you learn, hotshot?”

            Sam frowned. “…Nothing… Apparently there weren’t any other strange deaths in the school that he knows of. You find anything?”

            “Nope. History’s clean.”

            Sam’s eyes narrowed. “Then why the hell did you call and tell me you had a lead on the case?”

            “Maybe because I do. While I was looking up history on the school I came across their website for their school newspaper, and apparently one of the kids is swearing up and down that he was abducted by aliens late last night.”

            “…Aliens?”

            “Yup.”

            “Aliens?! Really, Dean?! You call me up and bitch at me for being gone so long because you have a lead, and now you turn around and tell me this lead just so happens to involve a kid claiming he was abducted by aliens?!” Sam snapped.

            “What? It’s the only lead we’ve got right now so we should at least take a look, right? I know it’s farfetched, believe me I do, but we don’t got anything else to work with at the moment.”

            “And you think this is related to the professor how?”

            “Well, the kid claims he was abducted right outside of Crawford Hall, not too far away from where our professor was found. Like I said, thought it was worth a shot to at least check it out.”

            Sam shook his head. “Yeah, ok…whatever. Any idea where to find our abduction victim?” He paused for a moment. “Wow, I think that’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever said.”

            Dean thought about it for a moment. “Eh, I’m pretty sure you’ve said weirder. Hell, I’ve said weirder things. Remember that killer truck last year?”

            Sam chuckled. “Oh god, don’t even get me started on that one,” he mumbled as he followed his brother out of the room.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam honestly wasn’t sure what to say at this point. When they had gone to the kid’s dorm room and asked for him just to hear that he was at a bar, Sam had thought that all of this was just one giant waste of time. But when they’d found the guy at the bar downing shots like there was no tomorrow he honestly had to admit that the kid did look like he’d just been through some kind of traumatic experience. He still didn’t believe it was freaking aliens, but they could at least hear him out, right?

            Now that they had introduced themselves as newspaper reporters and the kid was talking to them, he honestly wasn’t so sure that it wasn’t an actual abduction. As Curtis told them about how he’d gotten taken on his way back to his dorm from the library he looked and sounded sincere like he actually believed that was what happened to him…and when he trailed off and skipped what had happened to him while he was with the aliens it just had Sam believing him that much more.

            “So they just abducted you and then dropped you back off and that’s it?” Dean asked skeptically.

            “Yeah…” the boy told them softly as he downed another shot.

            “Ok, yeah, I’m not buying it. You obviously remember more than what you’re telling us, so come on,” Dean prompted.

            “You can tell us what happened, Curtis,” Sam assured him.

            “You won’t believe me… My best friend didn’t, he just ran to the school paper and told them I’d finally snapped or something…”

            “We’re open-minded, so why not give us a chance?” Sam asked.

            The kid downed another shot before glaring at the both of them. “I do **not** want this in the papers.”

            “Off the record then,” Dean promised.

            Curtis let out a weary sigh and looked down at the shot glass in his hands. “I, uh…well I blacked out at first and lost time…and then when I woke up I don’t know where I was… It was just some dark room with his bright light shining in front of my face and…they had me on this table and were standing around me…”

            “Then what?” Sam prompted when the kid went silent on them.

            The boy shook his head. “They did…tests on me… And, uh…they, uh…” he downed another shot, “th-they probed me…”

            Sam bit his lip to keep from laughing, and he covered it with a cough as he turned away. He shouldn’t laugh, he knew that, but he just couldn’t help it. Even though Curtis was being sincere it still sounded just as made up as every other abduction story he had ever heard.

            “They probed you?” Dean asked in disbelief.

            “Yeah, they probed me… Again and again and again…” he downed his last shot, “and again and again and again! And then one more time!”

            “Damn…” Dean muttered.

            “And that’s not even the worst of it!”

            Dean snorted. “How could it get any worse? Some alien made you his bitch,” he laughed just to cut off with a cough when the kid glared daggers at him.

            “They…” he furrowed his brows in confusion, “they made me slow dance. I mean what the hell? The damn probe wasn’t enough?!”

            Sam shot Dean a look before he offered the kid a polite smile. “Well thanks for that, Curtis. I think we have all we need. And I’m, uh…so sorry for your…experience.”

            “I seriously better not read about this in the papers!” Curtis warned before turning his attention to the bartender.

            The younger Winchester shook his head as he turned and made his way out of the bar with Dean at his side. “Ok, well, he actually had me believing him until he brought up a probe and slow dancing. I mean, that’s just ridiculous.”

            “Yeah, I know right? Aliens that abduct you just to rape you then make you dance with them? And, really, how the hell is the slow dancing the worst part in that?”

            “Yeah, seriously… So maybe this has something to do with the ghost somehow?” Sam suggested.

            “Or, maybe he was really violated by little gray men from Mars.”

            “And you don’t think he was just nuts when he told us that?”

            “Weirder things have happened,” Dean told him as they made it back to the Impala.

            Sam snorted. “Oh really, like what?”

            Dean thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. “Ok, I got nothing.”

            Sam rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

            “Well, either way, it can’t have anything to do with a ghost or whatever. I mean, what kind of ghost can make you think you were kidnapped by aliens?”

            “Ok, so you have a point. Let’s just hurry and find the spot he was taken from. Maybe we’ll find something that’ll at least give us a hint as to what’s going on,” he muttered as he turned to look out the window, his brows furrowing in thought.

            It honestly had to be something other than aliens, right? Or at least that was his thought until he saw the spot where Curtis claimed to be abducted and he saw the huge crater in the ground. “Ok…maybe he wasn’t lying. This was obviously made by some kind of jet engine.”

            “You mean some saucer-shaped jet engine?” Dean asked in disbelief.

            “What else could it be?”

            “What the hell…? I don’t know… I just wasn’t expecting this. I mean, I thought maybe we’d find something, but I didn’t think it would be an **actual** abduction thing. I was kidding when I said maybe he really was violated by Martians. Seriously, dude, what the hell?”

            “I don’t know. I mean, first the haunting and now this? There’s got to be some kind of connection.”

            Dean looked at him as though he’d just lost his mind. “You mean between the angry spirit and the sexed up E.T.? What could the connection possibly be?” he snapped.

            Sam shrugged. “There’s gotta be a connection somewhere, Dean.”

            Dean let out a sigh just to start making his way around, suggesting to Sam that they try to find someone that could tell them something about Curtis that might connect him to the professor. It took about an hour but they finally found someone that seemed to know him well enough for them to get some information.

            “So you and Curtis are in the same house?” Sam questioned.

            The kid nodded. “Yeah. I’m pretty good friends with his roommate.”

            “So you heard about what happened to him, right?” Dean asked.

            The boy bit back a laugh. “Yeah. He says it was aliens but, you know…whatever. To tell you the truth, whatever really happened to Curtis, he had it coming. So I can’t really say I’m surprised or that I feel too bad about it.”

            “Why’s that?” Dean questioned.

            “He’s our pledge master. He put us through hell this semester and got off on it. I guess now he knows how we feel.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            “None of this makes a lick of sense,” Dean said in exasperation as he opened the door to their motel room and they made their way inside. “But, hey, at least there’s one connection.”

            Sam arched a brow as he made his way over to his bed so he could take a look at his laptop. “Between what?”

            “The victims. The professor and that frat guy? They’re both dicks,” Dean said with an amused smile as he plopped down in one of the chairs at the foot of the bed.

            Sam laughed. “That’s a connection?”

            “You got anything better to go on, I’d love to hear it.”

            Sam froze as he looked through his bag just to look over to his brother. “Where’s my laptop?”

            Dean shrugged. “I don’t know. Anyways, think about it. A philandering professor gets a dead girl, a pledge master gets hazed-”

            “I left it in here!” Sam cut in as he angrily started searching through the room.

            Dean let out an aggravated sigh. “You obviously didn’t. And I mean these punishments, they’re almost poetic. Actually it’d be more like a limerick, but still-”

            “Ok, hilarious. Ha ha,” Sam cut in again, getting more angry since he’d told Dean a million times already to stop touching his stuff! “Where’d you hide it?”

            The older Winchester furrowed his brows in confusion. “What, your computer?”

            “Yeah. Where’d you hide it?”

            “Why would I take your computer?”

            “Because no one else could have!” Sam snapped. “We keep the door locked, and we never let any maids in!”

            “Looks like you lost it, Poindexter.”

            Sam clenched his fists at his brother’s amused smirk. “Dammit, Dean! You know I put up with a lot from you!”

            His brother scoffed. “What are you talking about? I’m a joy to be around.”

            “Oh yeah? Your dirty socks in the sink, your food in the fridge-”

            “What’s wrong with my food?!”

            “It’s not food anymore, Dean! Half of the stuff in there looks like it could sprout legs and crawl away any minute! And all I ask from you, the one thing, is that you don’t mess with my stuff! But do you ever listen? Hell no!”

            Dean gave him a bored look. “You done?”

            He glared furiously as he turned around to get some of his stuff together. He couldn’t deal with this anymore! He needed a break from his jerk brother, dammit!

            “What are you doing?”

            “How would you like it if I screwed with the Impala?!” Sam snapped, ignoring Dean’s question.

            “It’d be the last thing you ever did.”

            “Oh yeah, because your stuff is so much more important than mine! I can’t believe I keep forgetting!” he growled sarcastically.

            He finished getting his clothes together and zipping up his bag before he tossed it over his shoulder and made his way towards the door.

            “Hey, where the hell are you going?”

            “None of your damn business, jerk.”

            Dean shot him a glare. “Oh, I get it. You’re on your damn man period again. No wonder you’ve been acting like such a bitch lately. I swear you lose one little thing and you flip your lid like it’s the end of the damn world. News flash, you’re not Mr. Perfect! You obviously lost your laptop so just man up and quit blaming me for everything!”

            “Fuck off!”

            “Eat me!”

            Sam slammed the door as he made his way out of the room and rushed out of the motel as fast as he could. Maybe a little time away from Dean would do him some good so he wouldn’t feel like smothering the bastard in his sleep at least. He wasn’t entirely sure where he’d stay for the night, but anywhere was better than with his brother at the moment.


	3. Chapter 3

            Gabriel hummed as he flipped through what he liked to call the _Crazy Papers_ , flipping past the abduction story he read over just the day before. He needed something else for the dickhead he was going to be going after tonight…well, maybe not tonight if Sam ended up getting pissed at Dean like he’d planned.

            He glanced over when he felt something furry brushing up against his arm, and he smiled just to reach out and pet the dog as she cuddled against him. “So far it doesn’t look like this one has any more good ideas,” he said with a sigh, smiling as Oreo tilted her head with a small whine. “I know. I hoped I could use some of the other stories too.”

            He went back to humming as he turned to the last section. “Oooh, alligators in the sewers, huh? Now why didn’t I think of that?” he mumbled to himself with a slight frown.

            He was jolted from his thoughts when he heard knocking on his door, and he glanced around his place before he decided it looked a little too luxurious for someone on a janitor’s salary to be able to afford.

            He snapped his fingers and changed his apartment to something more average looking, and he got rid of the papers he was reading through before he got to his feet. He made his way over to the door and opened it up just to smile as he saw Sam Winchester standing soaked on the step.

            The angel quickly ushered the kid inside since it was raining hard outside and he didn’t want him to freeze to death. “How’d you get so soaked? It’s not that far of a walk from the parking lot to my door.”

            Sam looked at him with the most adorable lost puppy look Gabriel had ever seen. “It started raining when I was about halfway here,” the kid muttered softly.

            “You walked here?” Gabriel asked, frowning when Sam nodded. He reached out and grabbed the kid’s hand just to pull him back towards the bathroom. “Jeez, you’re freezing, kid. Why don’t you hop in the shower and warm up?”

            “Thanks,” Sam mumbled softly just to shuffle into the bathroom and close the door behind him.

            “So, I was thinking about ordering some takeout. Anything you’re in the mood for?” he asked curiously as he heard Sam moving about in the bathroom.

            “Uh, I don’t know… What were you in the mood for?”

            “I was thinking Chinese.”

            “Sounds good to me. I don’t care what you order for me, just make sure you get a salad of some kind with it.”

            The angel rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless as he made his way into the kitchen to find the phone and order them something. Normally he would’ve just snapped it up, but since he wasn’t sure how long Sam was going to be in the shower he decided it would be a safer bet to just actually order from somewhere in town so the food didn’t show up too fast for Sam to consider it normal.

            Once he placed their orders he made his way back into his bedroom and stretched out on the bed while he waited for Sam to get done with his shower, and now he found himself having second thoughts about this whole damn thing. Sam was a sweet kid, and he had to put up with his brother all day every day, so why in the hell was he doing this to him? Yes, he was a trickster and it would go against his nature if he were to simply leave town without messing with them a little, but should he really still be sticking around when he knew he wasn’t going to kill the Winchesters? All it was doing was giving him more time to like Sam that much more, and that in itself was a reason for him to haul ass out of there.

            The Winchesters were popular hunters, **very** popular, so he knew all about their destinies. The angels would have plans for them soon enough. Obviously angels meant Gabriel couldn’t be around since he had been gone long enough for his brothers and sisters to believe he was dead, and he wasn’t about to ruin that by being discovered and dragged back home to Michael.

            He was pulled out of his thoughts when the bathroom door suddenly opened and Sam walked out fully clothed just to drop his bag by the door. “Get warmed up?”

            “Yeah… Uh, thanks for letting me use your shower.”

            Gabriel smiled. “Of course. It’s not like I wanted you to freeze to death; what kind of fun could I have with you if you turned into a popsicle? I mean, sure, I could lick you all over, but it kind of defeats the purpose when you’re half dead and can’t exactly appreciate it.”

            Sam’s cheeks turned a light shade of red at that, and he cleared his throat as he looked around. “Y-Yeah… Uh, so…hi?” he muttered uncertainly, his cheeks turning a darker shade of red.

            The angel smirked. He found it endearing that the kid would get so flustered around him that he wouldn’t know what to say, but that was fine with him since he didn’t mind starting the conversations himself.

            He patted the bed just to watch as Sam made his way over and took a seat next to him, and he pulled Sam down just to move to cuddle up against the human. “So, what brings you here so early? I mean, I get that I invited you over here, but with how late you came to the school last night I would’ve thought  you’d be working right now.”

            “Yeah, well…me and my brother sorta got into it. He gets on my nerves a lot, and I try to overlook him since he’s my brother and we work together, but he’s been worse ever since we got into town. I finally couldn’t take it anymore and decided we could use a break from each other for a while before we kill each other.”

            “So I’m guessing that bag you brought with you means you decided to stay away for the night, huh?”

            Sam nodded.

            “So you just assumed I was going to let you stay the night then?” Gabriel asked with a smirk.

            “What? No! I mean, I wasn’t making any assumptions or anything. I wasn’t gonna ask anyways… I wouldn’t wanna put you out or anything.”

            Gabriel snorted. “Seriously? You’re already here so what’s wrong with just staying the night? Besides, if I’m going to be getting you drunk you don’t exactly need to be out and about afterwards. Wouldn’t want to get arrested for public intoxication now would you?”

            Sam laughed, the sound causing Gabriel’s heart to flutter in his chest for some reason. “Really? Public intoxication? **That’s** the argument you decide to use just so I’ll stay here?”

            “What? It’s a real thing. I don’t see **why** considering there are bars all over the world, and obviously you have to come out of a bar at some point-normally when you’re completely shitfaced-but whatever. On another note, did you seriously not think I would offer to let you stay here?”

            “…I guess I didn’t really think about it.”

            “Well, after this morning, you should’ve known I was going to want to keep you all to myself tonight,” the trickster told him just to slip a hand under the hunter’s shirt to caress the soft skin underneath. He smirked when he heard Sam’s breath hitch and he felt him shiver under his touch. “Do you have any problems with staying here for the night?”

            He gasped when he suddenly found Sam on top of him, pinning him to the bed, and he shivered as he felt the hunter’s hands trailing down his body.

            “I don’t have any problems with staying here if you don’t mind,” Sam said softly, his lips lightly brushing along the angel’s jaw.

            Gabriel found himself tilting his head back and bearing his neck to him. “Good… I was starting to think you’d gone all shy on me for some reason. Not good with talking to someone after fucking their brains out or something?”

            Sam softly chuckled. “It’s not that… It’s just a little hard for me to think of something to say to you for some reason.”

            “Really now? I never would’ve guessed unless you told me,” the trickster replied sarcastically just to chuckle when Sam lightly smacked him upside the head. “Really though, do you have this problem with everyone you hook up with?”

            “…I don’t hook up with people.”

            “Oh come on, like I believe that.”

            “I’m being serious. I don’t usually hook up with people-that’s more my brother’s style.”

            “…Ah, so you’re more the relationship type then?”

            Sam nodded. “Yeah… I haven’t exactly had the best luck in that department though,” he admitted softly.

            “Why not? A good looking guy like you should have men and women swarming you all the time. I’d think you’d be able to find someone you like out of all those prospects.”

            The hunter shook his head. “It’s complicated… Me and my brother travel a lot for our work for one, and for another I just haven’t really found anyone I was really interested in since…”

            Gabriel’s eyes gentled. He’d heard about Sam Winchester losing his girlfriend a little over a year ago thanks to Azazel, but he’d never taken the time to think about just how that must have affected the poor kid. Though, when he stopped to think about it, why the hell should he even care? Humans lost loved ones all the time and he could care less, so why did he actually feel for Sam and his loss? Hell, why had he not already moved on from this damn town in the first place? Yeah, there was at least one more person he could think of that needed to get what was coming to them, but he could easily hurry and do that and get out of here instead of just sticking around.

            “If you don’t want to talk about it you don’t have to,” he offered, trying to snap himself out of his thoughts.

            He felt Sam smile against his neck. “Thanks…”

            Gabriel’s eyes fluttered closed as he felt the hunter placing soft kisses along his neck, and he chewed on his bottom lip in thought. “So…if you don’t exactly hook up with people since you haven’t found anyone you could like as more than a one-night stand, why’d you hook up with me?”

            He knew he probably shouldn’t be asking since the kid was so damn charming Gabriel had a feeling it would be pretty easy to start falling for him, but he was honestly curious.

            Sam was quiet for a few moments, apparently thinking over the question, before he pulled back a bit to stare into his eyes. “…I’m not sure actually. You were flirting with me the whole time me and Dean talked to you last night, and then when I helped you with your car. You’re pretty funny too, and I feel a lot less stressed out when I’m around you. I guess I thought it would be nice to just hang out with you some while I’m still in town. Then you had to go and be a damn tease at breakfast today, and if that wasn’t bad enough when I was going to tell you I’d see you later tonight you had to pull me into that kiss. How could I resist after that?”

            “Well, for a minute there I wondered if you would. You’ve got some great self-control, Sasquatch.”

            “Sasquatch?”

            Gabriel shrugged. “What? The name fits.”

            Sam laughed. “Yeah, alright then, _Pipsqueak_.”

            “Aww, aren’t you sweet? I always give nicknames to people I like, but this is the first time someone’s given me one. Nice to know you warmed up to me so quickly. Most people can’t handle all of **this** ,” he joked just to feel a strange warmth spreading through his chest when Sam laughed again.

            “Well I guess it’s a good thing I’m not like most people then. If I can deal with someone like my brother, I’m sure I can handle you no problem.”

            The trickster let out a soft sigh as he noticed Sam leaning in for a kiss, his arms moving around his lover’s neck just to pout when they were interrupted by knocking on the front door. “Looks like the food’s here.”

            “Maybe next time you should just cook instead of ordering out,” Sam suggested as Gabriel got to his feet.

            “Oh? So you think there’ll be a next time, do you? That’s a little cocky, don’t you think?” Gabriel chuckled as he made his way into the living room.

            “Well, you did say I was still invited over for tonight even though you already got into my pants, and you even invited me to spend the night with you tonight. Kinda makes me think you can’t get enough of me,” the hunter joked.

            “Whatever you say, kiddo.” Gabriel smiled as he went over to the door and opened it up just to grab the takeout from the delivery boy and hand it off to Sam as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. As he paid the boy his eyes darted over towards Sam and down to his ass as the hunter moved into the kitchen, and he quickly shut the door just to follow after him.

            “Wow, if I knew their salads were so small I would’ve made sure you got me more than one,” Sam commented.

            “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I got a lot of other food. It’s not going to kill you to actually eat something you know, so me and you can just share everything,” Gabriel told him just to grab a couple of plates for the two of them.

            Sam snorted. “You say that like I don’t ever eat or something.”

            “Well, this morning all you had for breakfast was some kind of fruit salad, and then when I offered to order takeout you said all you wanted was a salad. That’s not exactly food if you ask me.”

            “There’s nothing wrong with having a healthy diet.”

            “Oh, please. Like you need it with rock-hard abs like those,” he mumbled as he reached out and lightly smacked the hunter’s chest, his heart fluttering in his chest again when the kid laughed at him.

            After they’d halved all of the food and gotten themselves something to drink Gabriel led Sam back out into the living room and over to the coffee table, grabbing the remote and flipping on the TV just to smile as Sam took a seat next to him without him having to motion for him to do so.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Gabriel had found himself unable to stop smiling all throughout dinner, and honestly he couldn’t recall ever having this much fun with a human before. Sam was just so charming and so funny that it made him reconsider sticking around for a bit longer. Sure, normally it would be a good idea for him to hurry and bolt town, but he really couldn’t help wanting to stay with Sam. He realized the pull the young hunter seemed to have on him should concern him, but in all actuality he was starting to find the feeling strangely addicting.

            He was pulled from his thoughts when he suddenly felt Sam brushing his hair behind his ear, and he turned to look at him just to blink in surprise when he was suddenly pulled into a soft kiss. He couldn’t help but sigh in content as he kissed back, his arms sliding around the hunter’s neck as he was pulled into his lap.

            His eyes fluttered closed upon feeling the hunter’s fingers tangling in his hair, and he gave a small roll of his hips just to willingly open his mouth when he felt Sam’s tongue sliding along his bottom lip.

            His body trembled, grace flaring in his chest as their tongues danced and Sam’s hands started trailing along his body. The archangel let this continue for several minutes before he pulled back just far enough for the both of them to catch their breath. A shiver ran down his spine when he felt Sam bringing a hand up to the back of his neck to pull him back to his lips, which he gladly allowed; he wasn’t entirely sure how they’d gone from watching a movie and finding things to make fun of to them making out and grinding against each other, but he definitely wasn’t complaining about the sudden turn of events.

            Gabriel gasped in surprise as he was suddenly pushed out of Sam’s lap just to find himself being pinned against the floor, his breath hitching as his legs were grabbed and pulled around Sam’s waist. “Sam…” he murmured breathily, his head falling back to give him better access when he felt his lover’s teeth grazing along his throat.

            He let out a surprised moan as he felt the hunter grind their hips together, unable to explain why he found it so damn hot to have Sam dominating him like this. Gabriel was one of the most powerful beings in existence, and he’d never allowed anyone to dominate him in the bedroom before…so why then did he like it so much when Sam did it? With anyone else he would’ve normally taken control by now, but with Sam he couldn’t help but want the hunter to hold him down and make him scream in pleasure.

            The trickster was pulled from his thoughts when he suddenly heard the sound of ripping fabric and he felt the cool air hitting his now bare chest. His eyes darkened in lust as he arched up into Sam’s touch, the hunter’s calloused fingers sliding down his chest and making him shiver in desire while his own hands moved to rid Sam of his shirt.

            He let out another moan when Sam rolled his hips again and he moved his hands down to grip the man’s jean-clad ass, oh so tempted to just use his grace to hurry and get rid of the rest of their clothes even though he knew Sam would freak out if he were to do that. Besides, he supposed part of the fun was getting to rip each other’s clothes off.

            “Sam!” he moaned as the hunter continued to grind against him. “Please…”

            Sam chuckled in obvious amusement as his hands slid down Gabriel’s back and down to his hips to hold them in place. “What?” he asked teasingly.

            Gabriel growled in frustration as his hands moved to eagerly tug at Sam’s belt, growing more frustrated when it took him a moment to get it undone. “You know what! You had us stripped down way faster than this when we did this earlier!”

            The hunter smirked as he grabbed Gabriel’s hands and pinned them up above his head, the angel feeling a thrill run through him when he did so. “That’s because we didn’t exactly have a lot of time earlier, Gabe,” he said huskily. “But now we have all night, so I get to take my time with you.”

            Gabriel’s eyes slid closed at the sound of his lover’s voice, his breath hitching as he felt a hand moving around to his stomach and down to the waistband of his jeans. He licked his lips as he felt him tugging at his belt, and admittedly it turned him on way more than it should have to have Sam removing his belt with just one hand. He bit down on his bottom lip in an attempt to distract himself so he wouldn’t break free of Sam’s hold and flip them over since he was really enjoying this, though he almost lost it when a hand slipped into his pants and started palming him through his boxers.

            He moaned as he rolled his hips, wanting more of Sam’s touch. He took a shaky breath as he felt the hunter’s fingers slip into the waistband of his boxers, and he had to bite down on his bottom lip to keep from whimpering when he suddenly removed his hand completely. Gabriel wanted to ask what the hell he did that for, though he decided not to complain when Sam suddenly grabbed his jeans and started jerking them off of him.

            The angel reached out for him just to shiver as his wrists were grabbed and pinned above his head again.

            “I didn’t say you could touch me,” Sam said huskily just to move a hand down to his own belt, which was hanging open thanks to Gabriel. Sam pulled the belt from his jeans and brought it up just to wrap it around Gabriel’s wrists three times before pulling it tight and buckling it so that his arms were firmly trapped together.

            Obviously it would be extremely easy for Gabriel to break free if he truly wanted to, but he was starting to realize he had a bit of a domination kink. He watched the hunter curiously as he noticed he seemed to be thinking about something, and he was about to ask what was wrong only to furrow his brows in confusion when the man suddenly reached over and grabbed his cup from the table.

            Gabriel snorted. “You’re keeping me waiting so you can have a drink break? Seriously?!” he asked with an aggravated huff.

            Sam gave a sly smirk that sent chills down the angel’s spine. “Not exactly.”

            Gabriel rolled his eyes as the boy turned the cup up. _“Not a drink break my ass…”_ he thought with a pout, blinking when Sam put the cup down and suddenly opened his mouth so an ice cube dropped into his hand. He arched a brow as the hunter straddled his hips, and he hissed in pleasure as his lover’s fingers tangled in his hair and roughly jerked his head back.

            He jumped a bit as he suddenly felt Sam putting the ice cube behind his ear, and he took a shaky breath as he felt it slowly being dragged down his neck and over his throat. His body shivered pleasantly as the ice was moved to his chest. He let out a low moan, his back arching as the hunter started to circle a nipple with it as he leaned down and started to tug the other between his teeth for several moments before switching.

            He bit down hard on his bottom lip to try and hold back a whimper, nails digging into the palms of his hands as he tightly clenched his fists. A strangled moan escaped him when the hunter suddenly started dragging the melting ice down his stomach to slowly circle his belly button.

            It was shocking how much he was enjoying this considering he’d never thought ice could be so…erotic.

            His stomach quivered as he felt Sam move the ice down further just to hit the waistband of his boxers, growling in frustration when the hunter simply slid the ice back up his body to tease over all his hotspots once again. It was nearly unbearable, but he couldn’t bring himself to take over and speed things along since he’d never had someone take their time with him like this… It was like Sam was trying to make sure he was thoroughly enjoying himself, and that thought had his heart stuttering in his chest.

            He found himself smiling as his lover leaned in to start nibbling at his lips, opening his mouth in invitation just to give a small pout when Sam simply pulled back and started sucking a trail down his chest, nuzzling at his lower stomach just for his teeth to grab the waistband of his boxers and slowly drag them down. He mewled in pleasure as Sam’s teeth grazed along his thighs in his attempt to remove the trickster’s last article of clothing, shivering pleasantly as he felt that damn ice cube skating up along his inner thighs and the man’s sinful tongue trailing behind it.

            He couldn’t resist lifting his head to look down and watch as the hunter moved to give the same treatment to his other leg, just barely catching a whimper as Sam slid his lips along his aching cock. He cursed in aggravation when he suddenly pulled back just to reach for the cup again.

            Sam chuckled, obviously finding amusement out of Gabriel’s torment. “Don’t worry, babe. I’m not gonna leave you hanging.”

            “I’m honestly starting to doubt that,” the angel mumbled in frustration.

            The hunter gave another laugh. “Oh, believe me, I’m about to blow your mind,” he said with a wink just to turn the cup up once again.

            “As long as you hurry and blow **something**!” the angel snapped in exasperation.

            Sam smirked as he sat the cup back on the coffee table, leaning down to run his lips along Gabriel’s length once again.

            The angel shivered at the cold feel of the man’s lips just for his eyes to widen in shock as all breath was knocked out of him when Sam opened his mouth and damn near deep-throated him. That wasn’t what had him letting out strangled gasps and moans though… It was the fact that Sam had at least three ice cubes in his mouth.

            Gabriel’s head fell back, his back arching in shocked pleasure at the unexplainable sensation. He finally couldn’t stop himself from whimpering as he eagerly moved his hips, letting out a choked sob when he felt his lover’s hands tightly gripping his hips to hold him in place.

            “Sam, please!” he begged, his breath coming out in harsh pants as the hunter bobbed his head and sucked, the ice quickly melting in his mouth and making the sensation that much more mind-blowing as he swallowed around him. “Holy fuck… Sam… I’m about t-to…”

            His lover pulled back at his warning just to roughly flip him onto his stomach, a wave of heat washing over Gabriel as the hunter reached under his stomach and jerked him onto his arms and knees, and he bit down on his bottom lip hard in anticipation as he felt him trailing cold kisses down his spine.

            “I don’t have any lube on me at the moment,” Sam huskily growled against his skin just to teasingly bite at the dip in his back as his hands slid up the back of his thighs to his ass. “And since I’m really not wanting to take the time to go get some…I hope this will do.”

            Gabriel was about to ask him what he was talking about just to let out a startled moan as he felt the man’s tongue slide over his quivering entrance. He was so tempted to tell Sam to just stop with the damn foreplay and fuck him already, but the command was stuck in his throat as he felt that damn tongue circling his rim.

            His nails dug into the wooden floor beneath them, head falling forward and biting into the belt holding his arms together as soon as Sam stopped teasing and slipped that wicked tongue inside.

            He screamed in pleasure as he bit down harder on the belt, having never had someone do this to him before and loving every single second of it, his moans only growing louder as his lover eventually slipped a couple of fingers inside to start opening him up. When he felt Sam brush against his prostate that was all he could take, and he loudly cursed as he came, a small sob escaping him as Sam continued to thrust his fingers into his sweet spot.

            He barely even registered when Sam added a third finger, whimpering and pleading softly under his breath as he pressed back against his lover’s touch, starting to mutter curses in Enochian as Sam started pressing open-mouthed kisses up his back all the way up to his shoulder.

            He let out a small sound of protest when he felt his lover’s fingers disappear, barely registering the sound of rustling fabric behind him just to gasp in surprise as he was suddenly pulled up onto his knees and lifted up into the hunter’s lap. His whole body quivered in anticipation as he felt the man’s cock sliding between the globes of his ass, and his head fell back against Sam’s shoulder as he let out a string of curses in Enochian when the hunter suddenly spread his cheeks and thrust into him in one hard, deep stroke.

            He pulled his bound arms close to his chest as he rocked his hips in time with his lover’s thrusts, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as every single thrust perfectly nailed his prostate. “Holy fucking shit, Sammy! Please, harder! Fuck, I need it harder!” he moaned out, no longer sure if his words were English or Enochian anymore since he was barely able to breathe, let alone think.

            He let out a loud scream in bliss as he felt the fingers of one of Sam’s hands digging into his hip, the other hand sliding up his chest to wrap around the base of his throat and lightly squeeze as he felt the hunter’s teeth roughly biting into his shoulder before he was screaming Sam’s name and coming harder than he ever has before.

            The last thing he remembers is hearing Sam’s sexy voice moaning his name and feeling the man’s hot release filling him before he collapsed back against his lover and slipped into unconsciousness.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Gabriel furrowed his brows in confusion when he felt something warm wrapped around him, and when he shifted around a bit he was even more confused when he felt silk sheets underneath him instead of a hard floor.

            His eyes slowly fluttered open and he glanced around just to see it was still dark outside, the moonlight seeping through the window and casting shadows on the walls that seemed to dance.

            He let out a content sigh as he felt soft lips sucking and nipping at his neck, smiling as he opened his neck up more to his lover as calloused hands slid down along his arms.

            “I see you finally untied my arms…” he mumbled, shivering at the sound of that beautiful laugh.

            “Yeah, well, I wasn’t gonna make you sleep like that,” Sam told him simply as he nuzzled a spot behind his ear that had the angel sucking in a shaky breath. “I didn’t wake you up did I? I thought I did a pretty good job of cleaning us up without disturbing you… Or was it the kisses?”

            “Could’ve been the kisses,” the trickster murmured with a small smile before he carefully turned to face the hunter. He brought a hand up to trail a finger down Sam’s cheek and over his lips as he snuggled a little closer.

            “You ok?” Sam asked suddenly, causing the angel to furrow his brows in confusion.

            “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

            “Well… I mean, I know I can get a little rough sometimes, but I’ve never really taken it so far it caused my lover to pass out before.”

            Gabriel smirked as he noticed Sam’s face growing darker, and he realized the kid must be blushing. “You sure as hell won’t be hearing any complaints from me, kiddo. I don’t play around that often, but when I do I tend to like it rough. Granted I’m usually the one being rough, but I definitely liked how you had me screaming tonight. I think I could get used to it,” he admitted truthfully.

            Sam grinned brightly as he leaned in closer just to brush their noses together. “Yeah?” he mumbled against Gabriel’s lips, the angel replying with a breathy ‘definitely’, before Sam was closing the short distance between them and pulling him into a soft kiss; the hunter gasping in surprise when Gabriel suddenly pushed him onto his back just to straddle his waist.

            “Think you’re up for round two, lover-boy?” Gabriel purred playfully.

            “Aren’t you tired?”

            The trickster snorted. “Oh please, it takes way more than that to wear me out. If you’re too tired though…”

            “I never said I was tired.”

            “Well good then, because I specifically remember you telling me earlier that we had **all** night. I’m a man that likes to hold people to their word, Sammy, so we’re not stopping until the sun comes up,” he chuckled just to lean down and press a kiss to the man’s lips as he gave a teasing roll of his hips.


	4. Chapter 4

            Sam let out a soft sigh as he started coming to, trying to fight it and stay asleep, though he instantly woke when he reached out for the warm body next to him just for his hand to meet the cool sheets instead. He frowned as he sat up and looked around, wondering where Gabe could be since the guy hadn’t said anything about having to work an early shift at Crawford Hall today.

            His eyes flicked over to the bedroom door when he heard the knob turning, and he blinked several times when he noticed the man walk in with a tray of food. He honestly thought he had to be dreaming since he’d never had anyone make him breakfast in bed before. Sam had done it for Jessica, but he couldn’t remember her ever returning the favor, and he’d definitely never had someone he’d barely known for a couple of days do something like this.

            He offered a smile as his spunky little lover made his way over and set the tray on the nightstand before jumping up onto the bed and into his lap. “How in the hell are you up already?”

            Gabe rolled his eyes. “Good morning to you too, Sasquatch,” he mumbled sarcastically.

            Sam gave a small chuckle just to reach up and cup his face to pull him in for a soft kiss. “Good morning, Gabe.”

            “Mmm, now that’s more like it,” the man said with one of his beautiful smiles.

            Sam smiled as he moved a hand up and brushed a strand of hair out of Gabe’s face and tucked it behind his ear. “Seriously though, what are you doing up already? I would’ve thought you’d be out longer than me after last night.”

            “I thought I told you it takes a lot to wear me out.”

            “You seemed pretty worn out earlier when we finally went to sleep.”

            “I recharge pretty quick. Besides, you did most of the work last night anyways,” the man said with a small smirk.

            Sam laughed at that just to shake his head. “Hey, speaking of last night, you just reminded me I was wanting to ask you something.”

            “What’s that?”

            “What kind of language were you speaking last night? I’m pretty good with foreign languages but I couldn’t tell what it was.”

            Gabe seemed to pause for a moment as though he were thinking it over. “…What makes you think it wasn’t just incoherent gibberish?”

            Sam furrowed his brows in confusion. “It didn’t sound like gibberish to me.”

            “I don’t know. I hear a lot of different languages around the school since I’m sometimes working when classes are going on, and there’s a lot of different language professors here. It was probably ancient Egyptian or something like that. I kind of didn’t realize I was doing it anyways, so I can’t say for sure what it was.”

            Sam smirked. “I had you that blissed out that you didn’t even know what you were saying?”

            “Yeah, yeah, don’t let it get to your head-there’s only room for one cocky bastard around here, and arrogance happens to look better on me,” Gabe retorted with a wink, Sam laughing as he watched him slide out of his lap and reach over for the tray of food.

            “So, I wasn’t sure what you’d like exactly, but since I believe in actual breakfast I made you some eggs over easy, some French toast, bacon, and some fresh orange juice to go with it. I figured the OJ might make up for the fact I gave you good stuff instead of rabbit food.”

            The hunter couldn’t help but smile as he leaned over and placed a kiss to his lover’s cheek. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that though.”

            Gabe snorted. “I know I didn’t **have** to. First thing you need to learn about me is I don’t do anything I don’t **want** to do.”

            “Duly noted,” Sam chuckled just to dig into his breakfast. “Wow, this is amazing, Gabe. If you can cook like this why do you even need to bother ordering out?”

            “Because it’s quicker and I don’t exactly have a reason to actually bother cooking when it’s just me here, unless I’m in a creative mood and I make something for Oreo to try with me. She can’t exactly give great feedback though since she’ll eat almost anything.”

            “Think you’ll be in one of those creative moods later tonight? ‘Cause I wouldn’t mind being your taste-tester if you are. If you’d rather not though, I could just take you to this nice looking Italian place I saw yesterday.”

            Gabe crossed his arms, his lips turned up in an amused smirk. “Oh? And what makes you think I’m going to be spending my night with you, Sasquatch?”

            Sam hummed in thought just to grin as he realized something. “Because you promised to get me drunk off my ass last night but we never got around to it, not that I’m complaining.”

            The man grinned. “Damn, and here I thought you’d forget about that little promise. Oh well, I guess I have no choice but to let you stay over again tonight-for your own safety of course.”

            “Oh, of course,” Sam chuckled. “There’s no way you’d have some kind of ulterior motive to have me staying here again tonight after all,” he joked.

            “Glad we’re on the same page,” Gabe said as he snatched a piece of bacon from Sam’s plate. “So, got any plans for this morning?”

            Sam arched a brow at that. “You don’t have to work today either?”

            “I normally work the night shift, Sammy, but…” he trailed off to give a fake cough that had Sam rolling his eyes, “it seems I’ve suddenly come down with something. Guess I’ll just have to call in sick.”

            “If that’s the case maybe you should just stay in bed all day,” the hunter joked.

            “Ooh, you going to play doctor with me if I do?” the man asked just to suggestively wiggle his eyebrows.

            “Don’t be cute.”

            “Why? Is it distracting?”

            Sam laughed and shook his head. “You’re hopeless.”

            Gabe pouted. “I thought you just said I was cute… And you never answered my question.”

            The hunter rolled his eyes. “I don’t have any plans that I know of.”

            “Great! Then you can tell your brother to stop calling because you have plans with me now.”

            “Wait, what?”

            Gabe pulled Sam’s cellphone out of his pocket and handed it over to him. “Deano’s been calling all day. I had to turn the phone on silent just to let you get some sleep, and also because it was annoying the crap out of me while I was making you breakfast.”

            “You… My brother’s been calling all day and you didn’t tell me?!” Sam asked a little angrily.

            Gabe frowned. “Well…I told you now… But I thought you said you wanted a break from him anyways, so what’s the big deal? You should let him squirm if he was being that much of a dick that you decided to leave for the night.”

            Sam was about to snap that it could’ve been an emergency until he realized the man was right. Dean had been a dick and he had wanted a break from him, and it’s not like the guy knew they were hunters so obviously he wouldn’t realize why Dean calling him all day would raise a few alarms in his mind.

            He let out a small sigh just to tilt his lover’s chin up to place a soft kiss to his lips. “You’re right. He does kinda deserve to squirm, doesn’t he?” he asked with a smile.

            “Glad you’re starting to see things my way, kiddo,” Gabe said with a grin. “Now, like I said, call him and tell him to fuck off because I’m keeping you all to myself today.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam waited until he was finished with breakfast to call Dean, which took quite a while since Gabe wouldn’t stop touching him, kissing him, and making him laugh his ass off. Now that he finally had a moment alone, Gabe having taken the tray into the kitchen and giving him a moment to call Dean, he flipped open his phone and called his brother.

            He blinked when the phone answered before the first ring could even end, and he was about to say something only to be cut off.

            “Where the fuck are you?!” Dean snapped furiously, Sam glaring at nothing in particular at the bitchy tone Dean was using.

            “None of your business. What did you want?”

            “None of my-?! I’ve been calling you all day, Sam!”

            “Yeah, I saw that. So what do you want?” Sam said as calmly as he could.

            “What do I want? How about you getting your ass back here so we can do our damn job?! In case you haven’t noticed because you’ve been too busy being too much of a bitch, we’ve got a dead professor and a kid that was ass-raped by aliens, and we still haven’t got a single lead that can tell us what we’re dealing with here!”

            “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to try and find a lead without me,” Sam said even as he got up and made his way towards his bag to get dressed, pausing for a moment as he realized he’d woken up completely clean this morning and he couldn’t help but wonder how that happened since he didn’t remember taking a shower last night after he and Gabe-

            “Sam?! Are you even listening?” Dean asked with an aggravated sigh.

            “I’m sorry, what?”

            “I said finding out what this thing is would go a lot faster if you were here to help, so get your ass to the library and help me look through some of these lore books!”

            “Yeah, because researching on your own is gonna kill you,” Sam muttered sarcastically as he pulled on his pants. “Whatever. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he quickly added before his brother could say anything else.

            He closed his phone and placed it in his pocket as he grabbed a shirt and pulled it over his head, debating on whether or not he wanted to just leave his bag here or take it with him since he had his Taurus in there and he didn’t want to risk Gabe snooping through his bag and finding it.

            “So, how’d your bro take it when you told him you have plans today and to leave you alone?” Gabe asked suddenly, Sam jumping a bit from the sudden noise.

            “Uh… He, uh… W-Well…”

            Gabe arched a brow just to cross his arms. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”

            “Sorry. I wish I could stay and hang out with you today, but we’ve been working this really difficult job in town and he kinda needs my help,” the hunter admitted as he brought a hand up to cup his lover’s cheek, his thumb brushing under Gabe’s eye. “I’ll make it up to you tonight, promise.”

            The man sighed as Sam pulled him into a soft kiss, giving him a stern look once the hunter pulled away. “You’d better. I don’t take kindly to people breaking a promise to me. So, I suggest you start thinking of amazing ways to make it up to me right now because I can be very hard to please.”

            “Well then I guess it’s lucky for me that I already have a few things in mind.”

            “Oh? What might that be?”

            “Sorry. You’ll just have to wait and see,” Sam said with a cheeky grin as he gave a playful slap to the man’s ass and grabbed his jacket before making his way out of the apartment.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Dean angrily gritted his teeth as he snapped his phone shut after Sam hung up on him, and honestly he was getting sick and tired of his brother’s attitude. Ever since they’d gotten into town Sam had been acting like even more of a moody bitch than usual, and Dean seriously wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

            He knew that things had been getting tense between them for the past few days now, but really if Sam would just learn to loosen up and have a bit of fun every once in a while instead of nagging about everything and throwing bitch-faces left and right then they wouldn’t have any problems!

            He took a deep breath to try and calm himself down as he waited for his brother to meet him, a little curious to know where the hell he’d stayed the night before since they didn’t exactly know anyone in town and they were staying at the only cheap motel in town. He supposed he could’ve always gone to a different motel and gotten himself a room since it wouldn’t be as pricy getting a room for one, but for some reason he doubted Sam would waste any of their money for something like that when they already had a motel room for their stay here.

            Dean was pulled out of his thoughts a while later when he heard someone calling his name and he looked up to see Sam climbing out of a car and making his way over to him, arching a brow as he noticed the car take off afterwards. “Friend of yours?”

            “Huh? Oh, no, I hitched a ride.”

            “Right… So where’d you stay last night?” he asked, resisting the urge to roll his eyes when Sam pulled one of his bitch-faces.

            “I don’t see why that matters. And what the hell are you doing out here? I thought you said you needed help with research.”

            “I do, but I couldn’t exactly call you and bitch you out inside or I would’ve gotten thrown out,” he snapped before turning and making his way into the library. He smirked when he looked back to Sam and he noticed his brother looked like he wanted to snap back but was resisting the urge to do so since they were already inside the library.

            “So have you found out anything that could help us figure out what this thing is?” Sam asked softly.

            “Unfortunately all the books I’ve looked through don’t have anything that seems even close to what we’re dealing with. I haven’t gone through even half of the lore books they have here though, so hopefully we’ll come across something soon that can give us an idea of what we’re looking for,” Dean replied as he led Sam to a table in the back of the building that he had filled up with lore books.

            It was quiet between them for a few moments as they sat down and each picked up one of the books, Dean quickly growing bored since he’d already been at this for a while now and research wasn’t exactly his thing. It didn’t take long before he wasn’t even looking through the lore books anymore, and he started tapping out a beat against the table as he hummed under his breath just to look up when he felt as though he was being watched. He arched a brow when he noticed Sam giving him one of his bitch-faces yet again, and he simply started to hum louder.

            “Dude, just because I came to help you it doesn’t mean you can throw all the research off on me again!”

            Dean rolled his eyes. “I’ve been at this all night, Sam. Pretty sure that entitles me to a little break.”

            “Oh yeah, because I don’t pull all-nighters all the time without complaining about a break,” Sam muttered sarcastically.

            “Don’t be a bitch, Sam, it’s way too early for me to deal with that.”

            Sam gritted his teeth just to give him an icy glare. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to actually help with research just because I’m back!” he snapped, freezing just to furrow his brows in confusion when Pour Some Sugar On Me started blaring from his pocket.

            Dean arched a brow as he watched his brother quickly pull the cellphone out of his pocket to silence it. “Since when do you get calls from anyone other than me or Bobby? At least I **hope** someone other than Bobby is calling right now with that being the ringtone.”

            Sam shot him a glare, cheeks a light shade of red as he turned his phone to silent. “It was a text, not a call, and it’s a used phone so it must’ve already been set or something. Obviously I wouldn’t know since we don’t text, so it must just be a wrong number,” he said as he flipped open his phone and read over the message just to blink at whatever it was it said.

            “Right…” Dean muttered sarcastically, growing curious when Sam sent a reply just for the phone to go off again a moment later. Since he figured it might be an apology if it really was just a wrong number he said nothing, though when Sam replied just for the phone to go off again not too long after that he gave his brother a look. “Wrong number, huh?”

            “Shut up,” Sam said simply just to text another reply before returning his attention to the lore books. “Seriously, Dean, make yourself useful and help me already! I’m not looking through all of these myself!”

            Dean rolled his eyes, though he decided to at least pretend like he was looking so Sam would stop bitching. He soon started to get a little curious as Sam’s phone kept going off, his brother snorting or full-on laughing at some of the messages, and he was tempted to just reach over and snatch his phone to see what was so damn amusing.

            The elder hunter managed to ignore it for a few more minutes, and just when he decided to claim he was going to the bathroom so he could snatch Sam’s phone and take a look at it his brother suddenly got to his feet and made his way over to the computers with the book he was looking through. Since Sam left his phone behind Dean wondered if it would even be worth looking through after all since Sam hadn’t tried to take it with him to keep him from snooping through it, though he couldn’t resist when the phone went off again.

            He quickly grabbed it and flipped it open just to arch a brow at the message he saw.

            Aww, sorry your bro’s a douche, Sasquatch :(

            This obviously had Dean curious as to who the hell was texting his brother, not to mention why they were talking about him, so he went into the message log just to snort as he actually got a look at the name and saw the person was set as ‘Sexy Bitch’ in Sam’s phone. _“Yeah, wrong number my ass,”_ he thought to himself just to roll his eyes as he opened up the messages and flicked through them until he got to the first one.

            Hey, Kiddo :) What are you up to?

            Sexy Bitch? Really? Couldn’t come up with a better name than that? When did you even put your number in my phone anyways?

            Oh come on, you know I’m sexy. You said I was sexy enough times last night after all, so I figured why not ;D And I took your phone this morning while you were still sleeping because your bro kept calling, remember? I thought while I had it I might as well get your number and add mine so I’d be able to call or text if you ran out on me after breakfast.

            Dean blinked at that just to smirk. “Way to go, Sammy,” he chuckled just to move to the next message Sam sent.

            You know it’s barely even been an hour since I left, right? Most people would consider that a little clingy, especially when I told you I had a job to do.

            What? Is it a crime to text you when I get bored? :(

            Seriously? You’re bored already?

            Well, duh, I happen to have a short attention span.

            Oh really? So does that mean I should worry about you losing interest any time soon?

            After the way you drilled me through the damn floor last night? Ha! Not a chance. Haven’t been able to stop thinking about all the things you could be doing to me right now if you would’ve just stayed here today ;)

            lol, oh really now?

            I am. I’ve been getting myself all worked up just thinking about having your hands on me.

            Oh no. Don’t even start that. You’re already distracting me enough as it is, and I’m trying to work.

            :p You’re no fun… Don’t see why you don’t want to have a little fun. You must not be doing too much at the moment if you have time to text.

            Just checking a place out and seeing what all needs to be done. Unfortunately it looks like I’m the only one doing anything though since Dean is just sitting here making me do all the damn work. He’s trying to act like he’s helping but I know him well enough to know better.

            Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head as he got back to the message he first read when he opened the phone, and he was honestly debating on whether or not he should send a message back and pretend to be Sam just to have something to do when the phone suddenly went off in his hand again.

            At least when you get off work I can help you forget all about him, starting by repaying you for the mind-blowing blowjob last night since you left before I could return the favor this morning ;D

            Dean’s jaw dropped open in shock, having to reread the message several more times since he thought for sure he’d just read it wrong. When it didn’t change no matter how many times he read it he told himself maybe the chick just texted the wrong thing or something…at least until he remembered that Sam had grabbed breakfast with that guy from Crawford Hall the day before and had been gone way longer than he should’ve if he’d just been getting information from the guy.

            He finally decided he was just going to text back and see if he could say something that didn’t seem like he was fishing for information to find out if that last text was just a fluke or something, just to blink as the phone suddenly buzzed in his hand once again.

            What’s the matter, Sasquatch? You went all quiet on me… Or were you imagining having my lips wrapped around you? ;)

            Dean shivered in disgust at the mental image that gave him since this person was talking about his brother. He quickly pushed the thought out of his head and texted a quick reply.

            No, sorry :p Got distracted with work. And I highly doubt it was ‘mind-blowing’ lol.

            He quickly glanced around as he pressed ‘send’, making sure he was still in the clear for the moment and glad that he didn’t have to wait too long for a reply.

            Oh, Sammy, you have no idea <3 I’ve been hard for you all day just thinking about it! Where the hell did you learn that trick with the ice anyways?

            Dean blinked as he read over the message. Well, that definitely answered his question on whether or not this really was a guy Sam was talking to…of course now he was wondering what the hell this guy was talking about ice for. He was about to send a reply back, since this was getting rather amusing, though the phone was suddenly snatched from him before he could do so.

            He looked up to see his brother standing over him and giving him one of the most intense bitch-faces he’d only ever seen directed at their father. “So, find anything?” he asked as though Sam hadn’t just caught him with his phone.

            “What the hell, Dean?!” Sam snapped, immediately giving a sheepish look when the librarian putting books up on a nearby bookshelf cleared her throat. “What the hell were you going through my phone for?!” he growled more quietly.

            “Well, you’re the one who left it here when you went to the computers. I was getting tired of it buzzing over here, and I got a little curious since no one other than Bobby ever really calls us. I thought I’d take a look at whatever was so interesting about this ‘wrong number’ of yours that you couldn’t stop talking to them,” he told his brother simply.

            “It’s none of your damn business who I’m talking to and what it’s about, Dean!”

            “Geez, alright, Samantha. Calm down,” the elder hunter muttered with an aggravated huff. “You could’ve just told me it was your **boyfriend** ,” he told him with a slight smirk.

            Sam blinked, seemingly at a loss for words for a moment, and he looked as though he wanted to ask Dean what he was talking about before he opened up his messages and looked through them. “Oh god…”

            “You know I always had a feeling about you. I would ask if you’re top or bottom, but you’re too much of a girl to be top,” Dean said with another smirk.

            “Shut up!” Sam said through gritted teeth.

            Dean chuckled as he leaned back in his chair. “My only question now is who’s the guy? I mean, I doubt it really took you two hours to eat breakfast and question someone about whether or not there’s been any other strange deaths in Crawford Hall, especially if you said the guy claimed he didn’t know of any other deaths. Or did you even ask? Hell, were you even with that guy from the school? I mean, it wouldn’t exactly surprise me if you were considering how much eye-fucking you two were doing when we were there and he was telling us about what happened to the professor.”

            “I’m serious, Dean! Shut the hell up!” Sam snapped loud enough to earn another aggravated noise from the librarian.

            “So it **was** him. Oh my god, I can’t believe you fucked a janitor of all things. At least the guy was pretty easy on the eyes,” Dean continued, completely ignoring how obviously pissed off Sam was getting.

            “Like you’re one to talk! You don’t even know half of your hook-ups’ names! Half of them look like they don’t even have a job other than walking the damn street corner!”

            They both jumped and looked to the table next to them when they heard what sounded like a book being slammed against a desk just to notice the librarian giving them dirty looks. “This is your last warning!” she hissed angrily.

            Sam took a deep breath and sat down, obviously trying to calm himself down, but now Dean was starting to get a little pissed. “Why the hell does everything have to start a fight with you lately?!” he snapped as quietly as he could. “You’ve seriously been acting like you’ve got a stick up your ass more than usual! I thought getting laid was supposed to help with that, not make it worse! Or are you just jealous I get more action than you do since you’ve apparently been too much of a baby to risk me finding out you’ve got a thing for guys! And, really, I should’ve known with how you never denied it whenever I cracked a gay joke about you.”

            “What the hell is your problem?!”

            “ **My** problem?! You’re the one bitching me out over anything and everything lately, not to mention running off to mess around while we’re working a case!” Dean shouted angrily, unable to help himself.

            “Are you fucking kidding me right now?! After all the times **you** up and leave me to do research on a case by myself just so you can go out and try to nail every single woman you meet in the local bar, you’re gonna seriously complain about **me** for meeting and hanging out with someone I actually like?! And why the hell does it bother you all of a sudden anyways when you’re all the time telling me to take a break and get laid whenever we’re on a case?! Or is it the fact that the person’s a guy?!” Sam asked accusingly.

            “What the fuck, Sam?! You honestly think I’d care about something like **that**?! I don’t give a crap if you covered yourself in peanut butter and had a fifteen hooker gangbang!”

            “Bullshit! If you didn’t care you wouldn’t be acting like this!”

            “I only care because you’re acting like even more of a bitch than I can handle! Maybe if this guy you’ve been seeing sent you back to me in a good mood I wouldn’t give a damn!”

            “That’s it!” the librarian suddenly snapped as she made her way over to their table. “You two get out this instant! You’re both banned for the rest of the month!” she hissed angrily as she grabbed them each by their ears and started dragging them to the main entrance.

            Dean glared after the woman once they were outside and she let them go, rubbing at his sore ear as he turned his attention to Sam and noticed him pacing back and forth in agitation.

            “Great! This is just great! Now we don’t have a computer or any books to look through!”

            “Oh, what, you’re blaming this on me now too?!” Dean growled.

            “You seriously don’t think this is your fault?!”

            “My-?! You’re the one who started yelling in the first damn place!”

            “Maybe if you didn’t steal my phone and look through it I wouldn’t have gotten pissed!”

            “Oh boo-hoo! I looked through your phone and found you sending messages back and forth with your lover-boy, how is that anything to bitch me out over?!”

            “It’s called it’s none of your damn business, Dean! You don’t see me going through your phone!”

            Dean snorted and rolled his eyes. “Like I’d care.”

            “Oh my god, you might not care but **I** do! Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you to quit touching my stuff before you actually listen?!” Sam growled furiously, getting into Dean’s personal space and towering over him in a way that had the elder Winchester’s hands clenching into fists and ready to throw a punch if his brother didn’t back off.

            “Here’s a thought, genius. If you didn’t want me looking through your phone, why the hell didn’t you take it with you when you left the table?! Or, better yet, why doesn’t it have a damn code lock on it or something?!”

            “How in the hell would a lock work?! You figure out every single password I set for anything!” Sam shouted just to suddenly stop and shake his head with a nearly hysteric laugh that had Dean a little concerned. “Why the hell am I even doing this right now? You **never** listen to me, so why in the hell am I even wasting my time on this same old crap?” he mumbled in exasperation as he stepped back and massaged the bridge of his nose. “I’m done.”

            Dean arched a brow just to cross his arms and give a nod. “Good. Maybe now we can figure something out now that you’ve stopped spazzing out.”

            Sam shook his head. “No, Dean, I mean I’m done with **this**. If you find something before I do then give me a call, until then I think it’d be better if we work this thing separately for a while.”

            Dean furrowed his brows in confusion. “What?” He frowned as his brother shot him a look before pointedly ignoring him and pulling out his phone as he turned to walk away. “Sam!”


	5. Chapter 5

            Gabriel arched a brow in surprise when his cellphone suddenly started ringing. After it had gone quiet for a while there he’d started to think Sam had gotten busy researching, so it was a little surprising to see the kid was calling him instead of just sending him a quick text.

            He quickly flipped open the phone and brought it up to his ear. “Hey, Sasquatch. Thought you were busy.”

            “…Yeah, I was busy…until I saw Dean had my damn phone…”

            The angel blinked in shock. “What? When did he take your phone?”

            “Apparently it was after you texted me something about me running out on you this morning before you could repay me for that blowjob last night.”

            Gabriel winced at that. “Wow… I’m sorry, kiddo.”

            “Don’t be. You don’t have anything to apologize for-Dean’s the one that was being a dick.”

            The trickster’s eyes gentled at the furious tone of Sam’s voice, and he wished the hunter was standing in front of him so he could comfort him. He could practically feel the tension rolling off of the kid through the phone, and he couldn’t help but wonder how bad things got between him and Dean; and to think he hadn’t even planned to make the hunters fight today.

            “You going to be ok, Sammy?”

            “Yeah… I just wanted to call and make sure you were still home. Me and Dean got into it, and I’m sick and tired of putting up with him and his bullshit so I left.”

            “I’m home. I didn’t have any plans for today since you left, which is why I got bored and started texting you in the first place. You need me to come pick you up?”

            “…No. I was gonna catch a ride with someone like I did this morning, but I think I’d rather walk right now.”

            Gabriel found himself nodding in understanding. “Ok, well, the door’s unlocked so you can just come on in whenever you get here.”

            “Thanks, Gabe. See you soon.”

            “See you,” the angel said softly, letting out a small sigh when he heard the line click.

            He frowned as he closed his phone and nibbled on his bottom lip in thought, glancing down to Oreo when he heard her whine and he noticed her giving him a questioning look. “…Why do I care that he’s so upset? I mean, I know I wasn’t planning on making him and Deano mad at each other so I could get down to business tonight, but I should be happy that they’re pissed at each other… So how come I feel like crap?”

            He let out another sigh and shook his head when the dog simply continued to stare at him. “Don’t look at me like that… It’s making me feel worse,” he muttered as he brought a hand up and ran it through his hair as he tried to think of something he could do to help Sam relax and forget about his fight with Dean.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam let out a relieved sigh when he finally made it back to Gabe’s place, honestly starting to think that maybe he should’ve accepted a ride from the man after all since the walk hadn’t really helped clear his head and he knew Gabe would be able to get his mind off of everything. It also hadn’t helped that Dean kept calling him every few seconds until he finally just turned off his phone, and he couldn’t stop wondering why the hell Dean always had to screw with his stuff like it was no big deal even though they both knew that Dean went ballistic anytime Sam messed with something of his.

            He arched a brow when he made his way inside the apartment and he noticed all the curtains were drawn and the lights were out so it was pretty dark inside, and he couldn’t help but wonder what was up since Gabe told him he’d be home.

            “Gabe?” he called out as he ran his hand along the wall to try and find the light switch. He blinked when he found it and flipped it just for the room to light up in several different colors instead of regular light, and his eyes widened as he noticed the living room furniture was moved around so the only thing in the middle of the room was a chair and what appeared to be a stripper pole.

            “I’m in the bedroom. Be out in a minute, and when I come out there your ass better be in the chair I have set up for you!” Gabe called out.

            The hunter snorted in amusement, deciding not to ask and simply making his way over to the chair and taking a seat like he was instructed. “Do I even wanna know what the hell you got the living room set up like this for?”

            “Kind of thought it’d be obvious.”

            Sam rolled his eyes at that and let out a soft sigh. As much as he appreciated where this was going, it wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. He’d mostly hoped the two of them could just talk since he just felt like he needed someone to bitch to about Dean.

            “Look, Gabe, I appreciate the thought, but I’m just really not in the mood for something like this right now…”

            He frowned when he didn’t get a reply, and he impatiently tapped his fingers against his leg as he debated on whether or not to just get up and head into the bedroom, just to blink when he suddenly heard the familiar opening rift to Witchy Woman and he saw the bedroom door open.

            His eyes widened as he saw Gabe slowly making his way into the room and slowly moving his hips to the beat, and he licked his lips as his eyes slowly raked down the man’s body. So far he’d only seen him in tight-fitted clothing that showed off his ass and chest, but he had to admit the loose white button down shirt and slightly baggy jeans riding down low on his hips was quite an appealing sight-and the fedora was a nice touch.

            Part of him still wanted to tell him to stop so they could talk, but an even bigger part of him was telling him to just shut the hell up, sit back, and enjoy the show. So he decided to give in for once and watched intently as Gabe made his way over to the pole in the middle of the room and grabbed ahold of it just to start tantalizingly swaying his hips before slowly twirling around the pole.

            Sam’s eyes darkened in lust as he watched him start climbing the pole, honestly amazed to see him working it even better than some of the strippers he’d seen whenever Dean would drag him off to a stripclub.

            “Fuck, Gabe…” he muttered as the man turned upside down and gracefully twirled all the way down until his face was almost touching the floor. “Where the hell did you learn to dance like this?” he couldn’t help asking, only growing more curious when Gabe gave a small smirk but said nothing in answer to his question.

            If he wasn’t so entranced by the sexy pole dance he probably would’ve tried asking again, though when he noticed Gabe carefully holding himself in place at the top of the pole with his legs as he leaned back and slowly pulled open his shirt he decided it wasn’t important he get an answer right this second.

            He bit down on his bottom lip as he shifted a bit in his seat, automatically reaching up and catching the shirt when Gabe suddenly slid it from his shoulders and tossed it at him. Jesus Christ, could this man be any more amazing?

            The hunter blinked when Gabe was back on the floor once again and he noticed him get down on his hands and knees and slowly start crawling towards him. He couldn’t help but grin when Gabe stopped right in front of him and did a sexy little move for him on his knees in the floor before he gracefully got to his feet and straddled his lap.

            Sam’s breath hitched when Gabe ripped open his shirt, and he hissed in pleasure when he felt his nails dragging down his chest to the waistband of his jeans as those sinful hips moved in his lap. His hands moved to rest on his lover’s thighs, a small groan escaping him when Gabe leaned in and tugged his ear between his teeth.

            He made a small noise in protest when the man pulled back, though he couldn’t complain when he turned and leaned back against him as he continued his seductive dancing that was driving Sam crazy. Thankfully this wasn’t a stripclub and there was no rule against touching, so he slowly slid his hands down his lover’s chest and undid his pants while Gabe was biting along his jawline.

            He pouted a bit when Gabe pulled back once again, letting out a small huff in frustration when the man took off the fedora and placed it on his head. He tipped the hat up since Gabe had pulled it down over his eyes, and he saw that sexy little smirk on his face as he made his way back over to the pole just to run his fingers through his hair as he gave a teasing little body roll that had Sam thinking about just getting up and making his way over to him and dragging him to the bedroom. Of course, part of him was immensely enjoying this and didn’t want to cut it short, so he forced himself to stay where he was and watch as Gabe finally slipped out of his jeans.

            Sam tightly clenched his fists as he watched him climb the pole once again, and he waited until Gabe was done with his little show and back down again before he finally got up and made his way over to him as he was sliding down the back of his boxers to show off that sexy little ass of his.

            He chuckled when he wrapped his arms around the man’s waist and he heard him gasp, and he leaned down to softly nibble along his neck. “As much as I’m enjoying the show, I think I’ve had enough of that.”

            “Mmm, really now?” Gabe asked breathily. “Something else you want then?” he purred as he ground back against Sam, causing him to groan and give a small roll of his hips. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said with a small chuckle just to turn around and wrap his arms around the hunter’s neck.

            Sam growled when he saw the playful smirk on his face and he pulled him into a fierce kiss, hands moving down to his lover’s ass and lifting him up just to feel his legs wrapping around his waist. And since he wanted to be able to touch him he moved them over to the nearest wall and used it to hold Gabe in place as his hands skated along his exposed flesh.

            His head was spinning as they kissed, barely keeping up with what they were doing and only faintly aware that Gabe was pulling his shirt off of him and trying to get his pants undone. It was only when he felt his jeans and boxers pooling at his feet that he carefully kicked them off and attempted to set Gabe down long enough to get him out of his boxers as well, so he arched a brow in confusion when the man simply tightened his legs around his waist to keep him from pulling away.

            “Rip them off,” Gabe panted heavily when Sam broke their kiss.

            “But-”

            “I don’t give a shit, just rip them off of me,” he ordered, sending a shiver down the hunter’s spine with the commanding tone.

            He didn’t hesitate as he simply did as he was told and he ripped his lover’s boxers off, holding in a groan at the feel of Gabe arching into him with a guttural moan at the sound of the ripping fabric.

            Sam’s fingers bruisingly dug into Gabe’s thighs as he slowly ground against him, his moan being cut off when the man pulled him back into a heated kiss. When he finally broke their kiss he grinned and pulled back when Gabe tried to chase his lips, and he brought a hand up to the man’s kiss-swollen lips. “Suck,” he ordered huskily, taking a sharp breath when he did as he was told and wrapped his lips around his fingers while giving him a searing look.

            He licked his lips as he pulled his fingers back and he felt the man teasingly nibble at his fingertips, and he hoisted him up against the wall a little more to get better access to his chest as he moved his hand around back and easily slipped two fingers inside of him. He smirked against his lover’s skin when he arched into him, grabbing a pert nipple between his teeth and giving a sharp tug as he slowly stretched him.

            “Sam, please…” Gabe whimpered breathlessly.

            The hunter gave another sharp tug at that just to soothingly lap at the sensitive flesh when it caused the man to cry out. He continued to tease and make Gabe beg for it, loving the way his body writhed and his breath hitched with every teasing brush of his fingers against his prostate while he sucked dark marks into his chest and neck.

            It was only when he heard Gabe let out a soft sob and felt him digging his nails into his back that he finally stopped teasing and pulled back a bit to angle his lover’s hips before slamming into him.

            “Fuck, Sam! Yes!” Gabe moaned loudly as his legs tightened around Sam’s waist, his head falling back against the wall and giving him better access to his neck.

            Sam let out a small string of curses as he set a slow pace, pulling almost all the way out just to slam back in and right into his lover’s sweet spot, and he felt Gabe clawing into his back hard enough to draw blood.

            His eyes flicked up to the man’s face as he sucked at his collarbone, his hands sliding down to hold onto his firm backside and hold him tight. He smirked as he heard him letting out curses only to start talking in that strange language again, and he slowly nibbled up along his throat and along his jaw just to teasingly trail his tongue down the side of his neck and suck at his racing pulse.

            When he finally heard Gabe chanting his name and felt him clenching around him he knew he was close, so he quickened his thrusts and pressed a little closer to trap his lover’s cock between them and give him that little extra bit of stimulation to push him over the edge.

            It didn’t take long to follow Gabe over the edge after he felt his hot release coating their stomachs, and it took everything in him to keep from letting his legs buckle after such a powerful orgasm.

            He panted heavily as he buried his face in the man’s neck, gritting his teeth in the effort to keep standing when he felt Gabe’s body go limp in his arms. Thankfully he was able to ignore the feeling as he carefully slipped out of his lover and moved to look at him, smiling as he leaned in to nudge his cheek with his nose and press a soft kiss to his jaw. “You ok there?”

            “…Yeah…” Gabe croaked out after a few minutes. “Just…trying to…catch my breath…” he muttered with a sated smile as he moved a hand up to tangle in the hunter’s hair and pull him to his lips in a soft, chaste, kiss.

            “Think you can stand if I put you down?” Sam asked once he finally had his breathing under control.

            “After what we just did? Are you kidding me?” Gabe laughed.

            Sam smiled just to shake his head as he waited a few more minutes, the two of them sharing soft kisses while Sam gave Gabe a bit of time to recover, before he finally let him down.

            “Ugh, my legs feel like jelly.”

            The hunter snorted at that. “You weren’t the one holding us both up the whole time,” he reminded him just to allow himself to be pulled down the hallway and into the bathroom.

            He felt a small flutter in his chest as he watched Gabe start filling up the tub with water and even tossing in a cap full of something that immediately started making bubbles, and as he watched him he realized he could get used to this. After Jess was killed and he’d hit the road with Dean it had been easy to forget what this was like, and now that he had it he honestly didn’t know if he’d be able to walk away once this case was done and over with.

            Sam wasn’t like his brother. Dean was content with living life on the road and never staying in one place for too long or having the same person warming his bed every night, but Sam craved that normalcy. Even after everything he’d been through the past year and a half with Dean it hadn’t changed how he felt about hunting-he still wanted to give it up and live the normal life he never got to have growing up. Hell, if it wasn’t for the fact that yellow-eyed bastard was still out there somewhere, he’d probably call Dean right now and tell him he was done.

            Honestly that thought should freak him out since he didn’t think he’d ever fallen for someone as fast as he was for Gabe, but the more he thought about it the more reluctant he felt at the thought of actually having to leave town after things were taken care of.

            “Sam?”

            Sam shook his head to clear his thoughts at the sound of his name, and he offered a sheepish smile when he noticed the man giving him a concerned look.

            “You ok, kiddo?”

            “Yeah. Just, uh, a little tired,” he muttered as he made his way over and joined his lover in the tub, letting out a content sigh as he sank down in the water and smiling when Gabe moved to lay back against his chest.

            “You sure you’re ok?”

            “Yeah… Thanks to you, I’m great actually. You’re amazing, you know that?”

            “Yup. And I don’t even have to try either.”

            Sam snorted. “Way to be modest,” he said sarcastically.

            “There’s no need to be modest when it’s true.”

            The hunter let out a soft sigh and shook his head as he allowed Gabe to lace their fingers together just to give his hand a soft squeeze as he let his eyes slip closed. “What am I gonna do with you?”

            Gabe laughed. “Oh I can think of a few things.”

            “You’re hopeless,” Sam muttered in exasperation just to arch a brow when he heard Gabe scoff.

            “I’m awesome. And to continue to prove to you just how awesome I am, as soon as we get out of here, I’m giving you a full-body massage that will result in more hot sex, and then after we take a little nap you and I are going to go out and have some fun, and when we get back I’ll make dinner and we can cuddle up on the couch and watch stupid movies we can make fun of. That sound epic or what?”

            Sam grinned as he carefully shifted a bit so he could lean over and capture his lover’s lips in a soft kiss. “That sounds like a plan.”


	6. Chapter 6

            _“What are you doing? This is stupid and you know it. You let yourself get swept away… What are you going to do when he finds out what you are-or at least part of what you are anyways? You can’t be stupid enough to think he won’t ever find out…”_

            Gabriel let out a shaky breath as he ran his fingers through the sleeping hunter’s hair, a small smile tugging at his lips when Sam mumbled his name in his sleep and shifted around so his face was buried in his stomach.

            He waited a few more minutes to make sure the kid wasn’t going to wake up before he carefully moved to get up, moving a pillow under Sam’s head and pulling the blanket up over him before he checked the clock on the wall. Once he saw he still had time to set something up for that jackass that was testing on animals in the science lab at the college, he decided some fresh air would do him some good to clear his head and he silently took off.

            Since he still had a good twenty minutes before the douchebag would come out of the building he snapped up a diamond-studded gold watch and dropped it down the sewer grate next to the guy’s car, and he made his way up to the roof of the building and perched on the edge where he could easily see him come out and take the bait so he could put his plan into action.

            As he was sitting there he found his thoughts wandering to Sam once more, and once again he felt his chest tightening at the thought of what was going to happen sooner or later.

            Sam was smart, and if he and Dean made up and put their heads together they might be able to figure out what was going on around here, and they’d also be able to figure out that whoever their target was obviously had some kind of connection to Crawford Hall. After that it would probably only take them a few minutes to figure him out…

            _“You could erase their memories… You could erase their memories of ever meeting you and just leave. Even if they figure out they’re dealing with a trickster they won’t have any suspects, and you’ll be long gone so they’ll have to just pass through town without a win on this one.”_

            Well, there was a thought…but could he really do that? Even if he could get the Winchesters to forget, he’d never be able to forget himself… He’d never be able to forget Sam, to forget what they had…and it caused his chest to ache at the thought of the hunter not remembering any of it. Maybe it was selfish of him to want Sam to remember him instead of just being one more monster that was dealt with and forgotten about, but he didn’t want to be the only one that remembered… But then how else was he going to get out of this?

            For a moment the brief thought of possibly just telling Sam who he was ran thorough his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. Even though it wouldn’t be lying since he really was Loki the Trickster, having been dubbed that in Norse a long time ago when he first started playing his tricks on frustrating humans, he doubted it would go over that well unless he told him the whole truth. Obviously he couldn’t just come out and say he was an archangel. Even if he could easily prove it by showing him his wings, he couldn’t let that identity slip after how long he’d been in hiding.

            “Why does this have to be so hard…” he mumbled to himself as he idly picked at his jeans.

            He was pulled from his depressing thoughts when he heard a door slam somewhere below him, and he looked to see his mark making his way across the parking lot and towards his car. He watched as he obviously caught sight of the watch glinting under the street light, and he pulled a sucker from his pocket and popped it into his mouth as he watched the guy get down on his hands and knees near the grate. He waited until he saw him shove a hand through the grate to get at the watch before he snapped his fingers and conjured an alligator into the sewer to take care of the bastard.

            Normally he always got a kick out of giving people what they deserved, but this time around he couldn’t really feel any satisfaction from the way the man was screaming and calling out for help. He was just too anxious over what he should do about Sam…

            He let out a frustrated groan as he simply spread his wings and headed back to his apartment, trying as hard as he could to think of something else he could do to get out of this without having to erase Sam’s memories of him.

            He wondered if maybe he could just erase the memory of Sam meeting him at Crawford Hall and simply replace it with one of them meeting somewhere else, but then there would still be the problem that he and Dean would be expecting to find the thing that was killing people around here. Gabriel wouldn’t be able to stop screwing with people if he stayed in town since he’d been telling Sam the truth when he said he got bored easily, and obviously it would hurt Sam and be suspicious at the same time if he suddenly skipped town… He also couldn’t just erase the boys’ memories to forget there was even a case here since there would be no reason for them to be in town then in the first place.

            _“Ok, maybe you don’t have to erase their memories. After Sasquatch cools off and gets back with Deano to try and figure their case out, you can just keep them pissed at each other and maybe get them to the point that they can’t focus enough to figure things out. They’ll get even more frustrated and maybe they’ll just agree this whole thing was a waste of time and leave town.”_

            The angel let out a tired sigh as he landed in the alley next to his apartment, trying as hard as he could to just push everything out of his head since it was too hard to decide what he should do. It wasn’t doing him any good to think on all of this right now, so he decided it would be best to just forget it and enjoy the time he still had left with Sam.

            He conjured up a couple of steaming cups of hot chocolate in case Sam was awake and wondering where he was, that and he could really go for one of his favorite drinks right now, and he quietly made his way into the house just to see Sam coming out of the bedroom with his cellphone in hand.

            “There you are. Where were you?” Sam asked curiously.

            “Well, I wasn’t really tired, so after you fell asleep on me I thought I’d make some hot chocolate and find something else to watch. But I was out of stuff to make it so I just decided to go out and get us some hot chocolate instead, and there’s this guy in town that makes the best hot chocolate. Lucky for me, he was still working this late,” Gabriel said simply, carefully picking his words so it wasn’t exactly a lie, as he made his way over to Sam and handed him one of the cups.

            “You know you could’ve woken me up and I could’ve gone with you.”

            “Eh, I didn’t want to bug you. I don’t like waking people up when they’re sleeping. Besides, it was a quick trip so I didn’t want to wake you up when it didn’t take that long for me to get there and back.”

            “Still…it can be pretty dangerous walking around by yourself of a night in a city.”

            Gabriel couldn’t help but smile at that, knowing the kid was only worried because he knew there was something supernatural here that was killing people. “You don’t have to worry about me, kiddo. I can take care of myself,” he assured him, smiling at Sam’s frown and moving his free hand to the back of the hunter’s neck to pull him down into a kiss.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam jolted awake when he suddenly heard his phone going off, quickly reaching over and grabbing it off of the bedside table and bringing it to his ear since he’d had enough time to cool down yesterday after his fight with Dean that he figured he could talk to him without getting pissed again. “Yeah?” he answered softly since Gabe still appeared to be sound asleep.

            “I’m surprised you actually answered your phone this time.”

            Sam rolled his eyes at his brother’s angry tone, not ready to deal with his attitude this early in the morning. “Don’t start already, Dean. What do you want?”

            “Are you kidding me right now? I want you to get off your ass and help me figure out this case already! I went back to the library after it closed and broke in and stole all the lore books they had, and I spent most of the night looking through them and still can’t find anything that sounds even remotely similar to what we’re looking for. If that’s not bad enough, apparently another body was found late last night.”

            “What? How do you know that?”

            “I’m at a twenty-four hour diner right now to get breakfast and there’s a TV above the counter that’s turned to the news. I only caught like the ass-end of what they were saying, but they said something about police still being unable to report a cause of death for the body someone found late last night or something like that. I don’t know, but I figured it might be  worth looking into since it could be another unlucky bastard that had a run-in with our monster.”

            “Ok, so, what? You wanna meet up right now?”

            “Thought it’d be a good idea, yeah. I’m so over this case, man. I wanna hurry and get this thing done so we can get the hell out of here.”

            “It’s four in the morning.”

            “And?”

            “The morgue’s not even open right now for one.”

            “So? It’s not like we don’t know how to break in.”

            “And I already have plans for today.”

            “Are you kidding me right now? You’ve had more than enough time with your boyfriend after you took off on me yesterday, so you can get over it and come help me! Apparently you don’t care, but I’m sick and tired of this place! It seems like ever since we got here it’s just been one thing after another and it’s driving me crazy! Now tell me where the hell you are so I can come and get you and we can take a look at that body.”

            Sam took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying as hard as he could to keep calm since he didn’t need to get pissed and start yelling right now when Gabe was still sound asleep. “Ok, fine, let me go ahead and get off here so I can get dressed and maybe see if I can find the rest of the newsfeed you missed. I’ll text you the address, but when you get here just text. Don’t come to the door or honk or anything ‘cause Gabe’s still sleeping and I don’t wanna wake him up.”

            “Sure thing.”

            Sam glared at the tone of his brother’s voice. “I mean it, Dean.”

            “Whatever you say, Sammy.”

            Sam closed his mouth when he heard the line click. He took another deep breath to calm himself before he moved to place a soft kiss to his lover’s bare shoulder, and he pulled the covers up over him a bit more before he carefully slipped out of bed and made his way over to his duffle bag to get dressed.

            After he was ready to go he wrote a quick note to Gabe saying his brother called with a small emergency and he’d try to be back before too late that night if he could, and if he couldn’t he’d drop by early the next morning. With that done he placed the note on the pillow and made his way into the living room to flip on the TV to the news and wait for his brother, hoping they could hurry and get this thing cleared up so he could have a bit more time with Gabe before Dean dragged him off on another case.

            He was startled out of his thoughts a short while later when he suddenly heard a loud banging coming from the front door, and he cursed under his breath as he made his way to the door and he shot his smirking brother a glare. “What the fuck, Dean? I told you to text me and let me know you were here!” he growled angrily.

            “I thought I’d make sure you didn’t fall back to sleep or decide you wanted your boyfriend to give it to you good before we had to head out.”

            “God dammit, Dean, you’re such an-”

            “Sam?” came a soft, sleepy voice from close behind him.

            He turned to see Gabe wearing one of his shirts that was long enough on the smaller man that it came down past his hips, figuring he’d found one of his shirts he had in the floor when he heard Dean banging on the door so he could come check it out.

            “Hey, it’s ok, you can head back to bed,” Sam said softly, smiling when Gabe gave a small yawn and sleepily shuffled over to him and snuggled against his chest.

            “Not without you,” he mumbled sleepily.

            Sam glared at his brother when he noticed him rolling his eyes, and he brought a hand up to lightly caress Gabe’s cheek. “Sorry, babe, but I gotta go. Dean needs some help. I left you a note because I wasn’t planning on waking you up.”

            “Oh, I see how you are. Sneaking off in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye kiss,” Gabe said as he pulled back enough to look up at him with a small pout.

            The hunter chuckled at that just to cup his lover’s face and lean down for a soft kiss, trying as hard as he could to ignore the fact Dean was grumbling under his breath. “How was that?”

            “Eh, alright I guess. Could’ve done me one better and woke me up way before he got here,” Gabe said with a sly smirk and a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.

            “Oh, come on, dude-I’m right here,” Dean complained.

            “Feeling left out are you?” Gabe chuckled just to give Dean a once-over that had a jolt of jealousy surging through Sam. “Sorry, bucko, you’re not exactly my type. Besides that, you’re a little late. I’m already taken.”

            Sam wasn’t sure why hearing that made him as happy as it did, though maybe it was because he and Gabe hadn’t exactly labeled their relationship yet? Either way he couldn’t help but smile at the man’s words, and he moved to steal a few more kisses. “I’ll try to be back later today if I can. If not I’ll just have to come see you tomorrow.”

            “As long as you get here early. I have to work tomorrow night.”

            They both turned to look at Dean when he suddenly cleared his throat.

            “We need to hurry and get going, Sam.”

            Sam rolled his eyes at his brother’s impatient tone but decided it would be best to just hurry up and get going so he might be a little easier to deal with today, and he gave Gabe one last kiss before he pulled away and followed Dean out of the apartment and over to the Impala.

            “Thank god we finally got out of there. I was gonna puke if I had to watch any more of that,” Dean mumbled as he started the car.

            “Excuse me?”

            “Don’t get your panties in a twist, _Samantha_ , I just meant that was way too much of a chick-flick you had going on in there for my taste. Seriously, man, I haven’t seen you with anyone since Jess, and even then you weren’t like that with Jess the night I came to get you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you-it’s just a little weird.”

            “Why? Because it’s a guy?”

            “What? No! Dammit, Sam, I already told you I don’t give a crap about that. I just meant that I was starting to think you were never gonna hook up with anyone ever again. I mean, you’ve had quite a few opportunities to get with someone and you never go for it. Hell, Sarah wanted you **bad** and the most you left her with when we took off was a kiss. Now all of a sudden you’re gay and can’t stay away from this dude you met like four days ago when we first got into town and went to the college to check the place out.”

            “I’m not gay all of a sudden, Dean. I’ve known I was bi since I was twelve and went to the movies with Terry Phillips. He kissed me in the middle of the movie because he thought I realized he’d asked me there as a date, and I didn’t exactly mind it being a date either after he pointed out that’s what it was.”

            “Terry Phillips? You mean that little nerd you used to hang out with all the time when we lived in Georgia for a month and a half?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Wow, you have really low standards.”

            “Shut up, jerk.”

            “Just saying, bitch.”

            Sam let out a small sigh just to shake his head. “Look, I don’t know why it happened all of a sudden since I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get over Jess…but Gabe’s just different. I haven’t laughed as much as I have with him in a long time, and he just makes me feel… I don’t know… He’s just a really great guy,” he admitted, glancing to Dean when he saw him nodding.

            “That’s sweet, Sammy. So, uh, are we gonna do each other’s nails now while you tell me all about how you wanna have this guy’s babies?”

            He should’ve known Dean would be a dick about this…

            “You know what? Go fuck yourself.”

            “And then after that you can tell me all about how you get so overwhelmed with your feelings that you cry every time he fucks you,” Dean continued as he pulled into an empty parking lot next to the morgue.

            “Eat me, Dean,” Sam snapped as he grabbed a flashlight from the glove compartment and got out of the car and made his way over to the morgue and around back to one of the windows where he pulled out his pocket knife so he could unlatch it and get them inside.

            He did his best to ignore Dean when he heard him make his way over, and as soon as he got the window open he carefully made his way inside and looked to his brother when he said a small ‘hey’, just to catch the flashlight he tossed to him so he could get through the window.

            He took a quick look around the room and found a folder set out with information on their newest victim as Dean made his way over to one of the freezers and looked inside, and he arched a brow when he heard him mutter that this should be quick. He joined him as he pulled the slab out and he noticed a small plastic box with a bloody sheet covering a small lump of something. When they moved the box over to an empty metal table in the middle of the room and he lifted the sheet he let out small sound of disgust to see the only thing there was a giant chunk of some kind of meat, a shredded leg, and an arm.

            “Ok, that is just nasty,” Dean commented.

            “Uh, yeah.”

            “…So, mutilated?”

            Sam hummed in thought as he looked at the mess in the box. “Looks to me like something was hungry.”

            “They identify him yet?”

            “Yeah. A research scientist at the college,” Sam muttered as he leaned down for a closer look at the remains. “Guess where his office was by the way. Crawford Hall, same as the professor.”

            “Huh… That’s right where the frat boy had his close encounter.”

            “Yeah,” Sam muttered idly, moving to try and get a closer look when he noticed something sticking out of the shredded leg. “Hey, grab me that thing, would you?” he asked as he pointed over to the magnifying glass/lamp over in the corner of the room.

            “Thanks,” he muttered when Dean rolled it over and turned the light on for him, and he carefully moved it to the spot on the leg where he’d seen something.

            “What is it?”

            “Looks like a…” he furrowed his brows in confusion, “a belly scale?”

            “A belly scale? From what?”

            “Uh…an alligator?”

            Dean scoffed. “An alligator in the sewer? Come on.”

            Sam arched a brow as he looked to his brother. “What? Dean, it’s a classic urban legend. A kid flushes a baby gator down the toilet, and it grows huge in the tunnels.”

            “Yeah, but no one’s really ever found one. I mean, they- That’s not- They’re not real.”

            “Well neither is alien abduction, but something chomped on this guy,” Sam reasoned.

            Dean shook his head just to look back to the mess in the box. “This couldn’t get any weirder.”

            “You know what, we’ve been at this for days now and we’re getting nowhere. Maybe we should get some help. I’ll call Bobby. Maybe he’s run into something like this before.”

            “Oh, I’m sure he has,” Dean said sarcastically. “It’s just your typical haunted campus, alien abduction, alligator in a sewer gig. Yeah, it’s simple.”

            Sam took a deep breath and slowly let it out just to give him a look. “If you have any better ideas then, by all means, I’m all ears. We don’t have a clue of what’s going on around here, and the only thing that supposedly connects our victims is your theory that they were all dicks. My point is, we don’t know what the hell we’re dealing with here, so we might as well see if Bobby has any idea what it could be. So I’ll give him a call and you can drop me off at the motel so I can hit the books while you check out the sewers.”

            “What the hell? Why do I gotta check out the sewers?” Dean asked angrily as Sam put the remains back where they got them.

            “Because maybe we’ll catch a break and there’ll be something down there to help us figure this thing out, and because you’re a baby when it comes to research,” Sam said simply as he made his way over to the window they’d snuck in from and carefully climbed back outside.

            “Or you could just do both since you’ve left me hanging a lot on this case.”

            “Or **you** could just quit complaining for once about everything. If you don’t wanna check the sewers then, fine, I’ll check them. But that means you’ll be at the motel looking through more lore books. That what you want?” Sam snapped as he pulled his phone out of his pocket to dial Bobby. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he mumbled when Dean simply kept his mouth shut as they made it back to the car.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Dean grumbled under his breath as he dropped Sam off at the motel, really not looking forward to going down and exploring the sewers. Maybe he should’ve just sucked it up and agreed to look through more lore books even though he was so sick of reading that if he ever saw another book any time soon he’d probably throw up.

            He parked the Impala in a free spot next to the motel and grabbed a flashlight and made his way out of the car and a short distance around the corner to the nearest manhole. He shook his head as he knelt down and opened the sewer cover, letting out a small noise in disgust when the smell wafted up and hit him in the face. “Why the hell couldn’t we just assume we’re not gonna find anything down there?” he muttered angrily as he climbed down the hole.

            Dean wasn’t sure how long he was down there searching the sewers, though he must’ve been in there quite a long time since he’d gone completely nose-blind to the smell. He also felt like he’d scouted out at least half of the damn sewer system in the city, so he finally decided to just give up and make his way back to where he came from. Obviously that took a while since he didn’t exactly remember where it was he’d started from, so when he finally found a ladder leading to the street up above he decided to just say screw it and he made his way up and hoped he was somewhat close to the motel.

            The hunter took a deep breath as soon as he moved the manhole cover out of his way and he popped his head up into the fresh air, blinking a few times to get used to the light of the sun and taking a quick look around as he crawled out of the hole.

            He gave a small shrug when he noticed it looked like he was only a couple of blocks away from the motel, and he tried to hurry back so he could take a shower and get rid of the disgusting feeling left on his skin from knowing he’d spent a better part of the day down in the sewers.

            He finally made it to the block the motel was on and he turned the corner only to freeze when he spotted the Impala, gritting his teeth in anger when he noticed all four of her tires were flat. “Son of a bitch!” he growled as he made his way over to get a closer look.

            Dean’s eyes narrowed as he made his way around the driver’s side and he noticed some money laying on the ground near the back tires that obviously hadn’t been blown away by the wind because it was in a money clip. He knelt down and picked it up just to feel another wave of anger wash through him when he saw the ‘S.W.’ initials on the silver clip. “Goddammit, Sam!” he snapped furiously just to turn and make his way into the motel and up to their room as fast as he could.

            He stormed into their room and shot a glare at his brother when he turned around to look at him from the chair he was reading in and actually had the balls to nod to him in greeting. “You think this is funny?!” he asked angrily, hands clenching into fists as his brother gave him a confused look.

            “It depends. What?”

            He gave a mocking laugh. “Oh, it depends, ha ha-the car!”

            “What about the car?”

            “You can’t let the air out of the tires, moron! You’re gonna bend the rims!”

            “Whoa, wait a minute. I didn’t go near your car,” Sam said with an amused look that told Dean he was full of shit.

            “Oh yeah?” he asked as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his brother’s money clip he’d found and held it up to show him. “Then how’d I find this?” he asked, giving a smug smile when Sam jumped up and started checking his pockets.

            Sam paused for a moment just to give him a look. “Hey, give me back my money.”

            “Oh no, no. Consider it reparations for, uh, emotional trauma.”

            Sam gave a small, angry laugh at that. “Yeah, very funny. Now give it back!”

            “No,” Dean said simply as he made his way over to his bed and took off his jacket and tossed it into the floor just to look up and see Sam getting in his face.

            “Dean, I have had it up to here with you!”

            “Yeah, well, right back at you!”

            He quickly pulled his hand back out of the way when Sam reached for the money, taking a small step back and moving his arm again when Sam came at him again, only to gasp when Sam suddenly grabbed him around the waist and tackled him to the bed.

            “Get off me!”

            “Give it back!”

            “Fuck off!”

            “I swear to god, Dean! Just give it back!”

            As soon as he felt the punch to his arm it was on; Dean reached back and elbowed Sam in the stomach to try and get him off, letting out a curse and kicking back with his legs when his brother grabbed the back of his shirt and gave it a hard jerk that caused him to cough.

            He closed his fist around the cash and held on tightly as he kicked Sam off of the bed and into the floor, getting up onto his hands and knees to try and jump off the bed and get to his feet, only to feel hands lock around his ankles and drag him off of the bed where he busted his face on the wooden floor.

            “Don’t make me hurt you, Sam!”

            “Give me back the money, Dean!”

            He reached out and kicked Sam in the stomach and the force of it threw him back into one of the nightstands and knocked a lamp off of the table and into the floor where it broke, but in true hunter fashion Sam didn’t seem to be phased by it at all and simply jumped on him once again when he tried to get up.

            “Get off!” Dean shouted as he felt Sam’s knee digging into his back, growling when Sam grabbed his hand that was holding the money, and he turned his head and bit into his brother’s hand to get him to let go only to let out a curse when he was jerked up by the back of his shirt and thrown back over into the corner where the lamp had shattered, having dropped the money in the process.

            He hissed as he pushed himself up, a few shards of the broken lamp imbedding themselves in his hand as he did so, and when he saw Sam get up and try to pocket the money he ran at him and tackled him into the small table in the room. It easily broke under the force of their combined weight slamming into it, and he tried to get up only to feel Sam hooking a leg behind his own and tripping him.

            He decided to just end this already and wrapped his legs around his brother’s neck and squeezed so the pressure would cause him to pass out, though apparently Sam had the same idea since he felt Sam doing the same thing to him. He grabbed Sam’s legs and tried to pull them off, feeling his brother doing the same to him, and after a few minutes black spots started to line his vision and their grip on each other started to loosen a bit before everything suddenly went black.


	7. Chapter 7

            Sam groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, his body aching as he carefully sat up just to look around the room.

            He furrowed his brows in confusion when he didn’t see Dean anywhere, and he reached into his pockets to check for his money just to grit his teeth to find his pockets were empty.

            “Goddammit, Dean!” he growled under his breath as he slowly got to his feet and made his way over to the chair he’d been sitting in earlier while looking through lore books, just to grab his cellphone and flip it open to see how long he’d been out.

            He frowned to see he had at least four new text messages and he opened them just for a small smile to come to his face as he read them over.

            7:55am: Ok, I know you said you might not be able to, but you seriously need to try and swing by today if you can. I just made the awesomest dessert on the planet!

            7:58am: I was bored and a little snackish, so I more or less made this thing that’s like a grilled-cheese sandwich, only instead of cheese and what not it’s made out of melted chocolate, and I put brown sugar on it after it was done.

            8:20am: Ok, I know you’re probably busy and that’s why you haven’t texted me back, but I’m really bored over here. There’s only so much cooking I can do before I run out of things to make that actually turn out to be good.

            9:30am: I’m officially out of things to do to keep myself occupied here at the apartment, so in case you get done before I get back I just thought I should let you know I’m going out to find something to do to entertain myself. Might head to the park since Oreo wants to go for a walk.

            Sam frowned as he checked the time to see it was already going on five past ten, and he grumbled under his breath to know Dean had knocked him out for so long. Yeah, he was pretty sure he’d knocked Dean out too, but apparently he hadn’t done as great of a job otherwise he wouldn’t have woken up alone and down a couple hundred bucks.

            He took a deep breath to calm himself as he dialed Gabe’s number, and he looked through the books scattered around in the floor before he found the one he was pretty sure he’d been reading through when Dean had interrupted his research.

            “Hey, Sasquatch. ‘Bout time I heard from you. I was starting to get a little concerned for a bit there to be honest,” Gabe answered.

            Sam gave a small chuckle at that. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’m fine… Anyways, what are you up to? Finally find something to do to keep from being so bored?”

            “Eh, I guess. I took Oreo to the park like I said I might. We played a little fetch and went for a walk down one of the trails, and we found a creek and stayed there for a little while. What about you? How are things going on your end?”

            Sam wasn’t sure how much he should tell him considering he didn’t want him to worry, though he decided he might as well tell him a bit so he could get how he was feeling about the situation off of his chest.

            In the end he ended up telling him about someone screwing with his brother’s car and Dean thinking it was him and how the two of them got into a fight, leaving out just how extreme said fight got, and that Dean stole his money and took off and he didn’t know where he was at the moment. Honestly he was glad he told him since it made him feel better to hear Gabe’s thoughts on the matter, that and the fact that the guy was good at changing the subject to something else to take his mind off of it so he could calm down.

            By the time Dean finally came back to the motel he was laughing at something Gabe was saying, and he’d almost forgotten how pissed he was at his brother until he’d seen him again and he saw he had some kind of bag with him.

            He pressed his lips when his brother made his way over to **his** bed and took a seat just to reach over to the nightstand between the beds and flip on the radio and turn it up so he couldn’t really hear what Gabe was saying anymore.

            “Sorry, babe, but I gotta go. My dick brother just got back and turned on the freaking radio, so it’s hard to hear you.”

            “Eat me, Sam,” Dean mumbled darkly.

            “Yeah, yeah. If he starts being an ass again just ditch him and come find me. I’ll help you forget all about him.”

            Sam smiled at that. “Thanks. See you soon,” he muttered before ending the call and putting his phone away as he opened up the next lore book to start looking through it.

            He tried as hard as he could to ignore his brother since he really didn’t want to get into another fight considering they really needed to hurry and get this case over with already, though it was kind of hard to ignore when he heard a plastic bag rattling before it finally went silent for a bit.

            Even though he was curious, and even though he wanted to ask what the hell Dean did with his money, he decided it wasn’t worth it to start something again when he still had so many books to go through.

            He wasn’t sure how long he read before he finally couldn’t take it anymore because he was starting to get a headache from the music. He looked to Dean to tell him to turn it down only to shoot him a glare when he noticed he had a box of takeout sitting next to him and he was flipping through a magazine while grabbing a few chilly-cheese fries and popping them into his mouth.

            “Dude, you mind not eating those on **my** bed?”

            Dean glanced up at him at that and smirked. “No, I don’t mind.”

            Sam took a deep breath and slowly let it out just to bring a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose, trying to tell himself not to let it get to him since there was no doubt in his mind he’d be staying with Gabe for a couple of days after this case was over since he needed an actual break away from everything for a few days where he could just keep his cell turned off and relax with his boyfriend for a while before Dean found them another case.

            “How’s the research going?” Dean asked suddenly, pulling Sam from his thoughts and causing him to let out an aggravated sigh as he gave him a look.

            “You know how it’s going?” he asked just to slam the lore book he was finished looking through closed. “Slow! You know how it would go a hell of a lot faster? If I had my computer!” he snapped, his glare darkening when Dean gave him an amused look and nodded.

            He rolled his eyes just to pick up another book and open it up, bringing a hand up to massage at his temples since his headache was getting progressively worse with each passing minute. “Can you turn that down, please?” he finally snapped after he couldn’t handle it any longer.

            “Yeah, absolutely,” Dean said as he continued to read his magazine, reaching out with a hand and grabbing the dial on the radio only to turn it up even louder.

            Sam pressed his lips just to give him a look. “You know what? Maybe, uh, you should just go somewhere for a little while, huh?” he called out over the music, blinking when Dean suddenly turned the radio off.

            “Hey, I’d love to. Unfortunately my car’s all screwed to hell!” Dean finally snapped.

            “I told you I had nothing to do with-” Sam cut off when there was a loud banging at the door, and he paused for a moment before getting to his feet and going to see who it was.

            He let out a relieved sigh when he looked through the peephole and saw it was Bobby, and he quickly opened the door and ushered him inside. “Hey, Bobby.”

            “Hey, boys.”

            “Hey, Bobby,” Dean greeted happily as he got to his feet.

            “It’s good to see you again so soon,” Bobby said with a smile.

            “Yeah, uh, thanks for coming,” Sam said as he led the man over to the beds.

            “Thank god you’re here,” Dean muttered as he shook the man’s hand.

            Bobby nodded just to give them both a curious look. “So, um, what didn’t you wanna talk to me on the phone about?”

            “It’s this job we’re working. We…” Sam trailed off just to give a small, exasperated laugh. “We weren’t sure you’d believe us.”

            Bobby snorted at that. “Well, I can believe a lot.”

            “No-yeah, yeah, I know. It’s just, we’ve never seen anything like it, and we-”

            “Not even close,” Dean cut in. “And we thought we could use some fresh eyes.”

            The elder hunter nodded. “Ok, well, why don’t you begin at the beginning?”

            “Yeah, um, alright,” Sam mumbled just to motion for Bobby to take a seat while he grabbed a chair and turned it around and took a seat himself since he didn’t want to sit on the other bed next to Dean.

            “So, it all started when we caught wind of an obit. See, a professor took a nosedive from a fourth-story window, only there’s a campus legend that the building’s haunted. So we pretexted as reporters from the local paper and checked out the local bars near campus. Well, I talked to these two students that were in the professor’s class and the girl brought up the legend and told me about how some girl was allegedly having an affair with one of the professors way back when, and when he broke things off she jumped out of the window of room six-six-nine and killed herself.

            So, after I heard the story, I went to find Dean, who was at the bar downing Purple Nurples like there was no tomorrow. I told him we needed to go check out the professor’s office, but he said we couldn’t yet because apparently he was trying to score with, and I quote, _a feisty little wildcat_ that looked to me like she was probably a hooker. But then again her name was Starla, so for all I know she could’ve been a stripper.

            Seriously, I think he would’ve been better off going with me right then considering this girl was so wasted I’m pretty sure she threw up in her mouth and swallowed it, but I guess it didn’t matter since Dean felt the need to point out she had a sister.”

            “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute!” Dean cut in.

            “What?”

            “Come on, dude, that’s not how it happened!”

            Sam scoffed. “No? So you never drank a Purple Nurple?”

            “Yeah, maybe that, but I don’t say things like ‘feisty little wildcat’, and her name wasn’t Starla!”

            Sam scoffed again. “Oh really? Then what was it?”

            Dean paused for a moment in obvious thought. “…I don’t know, but she was a classy chick,” he said simply just to look to Bobby. “She was a grad student-anthropology and folklore. We were talking about local ghost stories. Yeah, we were taking a couple of shots and she was coming on to me, but I told her there wasn’t any time for that and she needed to tell me about the urban legend because lives were at stake.”

            “Oh my god,” Sam muttered just to roll his eyes.

            “Of course, she couldn’t really focus-and I mean, who could blame her when she had me standing right there in front of her. So, naturally, I felt bad for her and decided to give her a kiss to take the edge off so maybe she could concentrate long enough to tell me what I needed to know. And that’s when Sam waltzed on up with a stick up his ass because he wasn’t getting any action.

            He was all, ‘Dean, what do you think you’re doing?’,” Dean mocked in a girly voice. “And when I asked for five minutes he goes all, ‘Dean, this is a very serious investigation. We don’t have time for any of your blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah-blah. Blah blah-blah-blah blah. Blah blah-blah blah-blah blah-blah-blah. Blah!’, so then I said-”

            “Right, and **that’s** how it really happened,” Sam snapped sarcastically. “I don’t sound like that, Dean!”

            Dean shrugged. “That’s what you sound like to me.”

            “Ok,” Bobby suddenly cut in. “What’s goin’ on with you two?”

            “Nothing. It’s nothing,” Sam said in exasperation.

            “Come on. You’re bickerin’ like an old married couple.”

            Dean gave a humorless laugh at that. “No, see, married couples can get divorced. Me and him? We’re like, uh, Siamese twins.”

            “It’s conjoined twins!” Sam snapped in irritation.

            “See what I mean?” Dean asked as he got to his feet and made his way into the kitchen to grab a beer.

            “Look, it-” Sam cut off with a sigh just to shake his head. “We’ve just been on the road with each other for too long-tight quarters and all that. Don’t worry about it.”

            “…Ok.”

            “So, anyway, we figured it might be a haunting, so we went to check out the scene of the crime.”

            “Yeah, but that’s not all Sam was checking out,” Dean commented as he made his way back over to them just to lean against the wall.

            Sam rolled his eyes but decided to ignore the comment and continued with his story. “So we made our way to the school and ran into the janitor and told him we were electricians and had him take us up to the professor’s room so we could get a look around. He stuck around for a few minutes and told us a bit about what happened with the professor-”

            “More like he stuck around so him and Sam could ogle each other,” Dean said simply. “You should’ve seen it. When he told us about how the professor jumped out of the window Sam turned on the charm and started flirting up a storm with the guy. Getting all smiley and asking if he’d been working the night the guy died or something.”

            “I wasn’t flirting or getting smiley!” Sam snapped. “And of course I asked if he was working that night! We needed to know if he saw anything, and he did say he was working that night and that he happened to be the one that found the guy after he took the plunge. So I asked if he saw it happen, but he said all he saw was the professor head up to his office with some girl.

            Then Dean comes over to ask who was with the professor, and his freaking cheeks were bulging like a chipmunk’s because he found some kind of candy or something in the professor’s office and started stuffing his face.”

            “Oh, come on! I ate one, maybe two!”

            “Would you just shut up and let me tell him what happened?!”

            “Uh, not if it **wasn’t** what happened!” Dean growled. “Besides that, I’m surprised you were even able to notice what I was doing since you were all over Gabe,” he said just to look back to Bobby.

            “I asked him if he knew the girl the professor took up to his office and he said he told the cops about her and they must not have ever found her. So Sam asked if he ever saw her leave since he saw her go up with the professor and he said he didn’t, and then Sam asked if he’d ever seen her before but Gabe said he hadn’t seen her but he’d seen others since the professor apparently took a lot of girls up to his office.

            And then the guy looked at Sam and started grabbing at his shirt and said in a really sultry voice, ‘I’ll tell you all about it if you bend me over this desk right now’, and so Sam-”

            “That’s not what happened, Dean!” Sam cut in angrily.

            Dean scoffed just to roll his eyes. “Might as well have.”

            Bobby let out an exasperated sigh just to bring a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. “Boys, can you try to focus here?”

            Sam shot Dean one last dark look before he let out a deep breath and he decided to take over again. “Anyways, I asked if there was ever a room six-six-nine, but he said there wasn’t, so obviously that meant the legend we’d heard about was a load of crap. Still, since Gabe said he’d seen a girl go up with the professor but he never saw her come out, we figured it could still be some kind of spirit.

            So we came back to the motel, and I was going to do some research on my laptop but **someone** had the damn thing frozen on a freaking porn site, so I had to spend a better part of the night rebooting it and fixing it. Needless to say, I didn’t get to do much research that night, so I decided to just get some research in the next day instead.”

            “Except that didn’t happen since you took off and ended up leaving me to do all the research while you banged the janitor you couldn’t stop flirting with the night before.”

            “I checked the history on the place as soon as I woke up, you jackass! You’re the one that said I apparently wasn’t looking hard enough since I didn’t have anything to report, so excuse me for taking a few hours to clear my head!”

            “To get laid, you mean.”

            “You know what? You leave all the research to me while you’re getting your rocks off with some slut all the damn time and I never complain about it! But as soon as I disappear on you for a few hours with someone I happen to like, you act like it’s the end of the world! You were fine on your own for a couple of hours, so get over it already!”

            Bobby blinked just to open and close his mouth a few times as though he wanted to say something before he finally just held his hands up and shook his head. “Did you dig up anything about the building, or on the suicidal co-ed?” he finally asked.

            “No, history’s clean,” Sam told him.

            “Then it’s not a haunting?”

            “Maybe not. To tell you the truth, we’re not really sure,” Dean admitted.

            Bobby furrowed his brows in confusion at that. “What do you mean you’re not sure?”

            “Well, it’s weird,” Sam muttered, honestly not sure how Bobby was going to react to the second thing that happened since he and Dean still couldn’t really process it themselves.

            “What’s weird?”

            “This next part, we, uh… We didn’t see it happen ourselves exactly, but…it’s pretty freaking weird, even for us,” Dean explained. “See, while I was doing research on the school since Sam was off having fun, I came across this thing on the school’s paper. Apparently, uh… Well, apparently some kid claimed he was abducted by aliens.”

            Bobby seemed to freeze at that for a moment before his face contorted in confusion. “Aliens?”

            “Yeah,” Dean muttered.

            “Aliens?!”

            “Yeah,” Dean repeated.

            The elder hunter shook his head. “No. Look, even if they are real, they’re sure as hell not comin’ to Earth and swipin’ people.”

            “Hey, believe me, we know,” Dean agreed.

            “My whole life I’ve never found evidence of an honest-to-God abduction. It’s all just cranks and pranks.”

            Sam frowned just to give a small nod. “Yeah, that’s what we thought, but we figured we’d at least talk to the guy. So we tracked him down to the bar near campus and had a few words with him. And, I mean, even just looking at him it did look like he went through something traumatic.”

            “He told us he blacked out and lost time, and when he woke up the aliens were doing tests on him and they probed him-repeatedly. Like, I’m talking an all-out rape here, and then he says the worst part was after all that they made him slow dance with them,” Dean told him.

            “…You guys are exaggeratin’ again, huh?” Bobby asked.

            “No,” the boys said in unison.

            “Then this frat boy’s just nuts.”

            Dean frowned just to share a look with Sam. “We’re not so sure. I mean, we went to the spot outside of Crawford Hall where he claimed he was abducted, and there was this giant crater in the ground.”

            “A round crater that looked like it was made by some kind of jet engine,” Sam added.

            “Yeah, so Sam said there had to be some kind of connection between the vics even though there doesn’t seem like there could be any way a ghost and a rapist alien would be connected in any way whatsoever. But what could we do? So we just kept on digging.”

            “We made our way around campus and talked to a few of the students until we found someone that was in the same house as Curtis and was even good friends with his roommate, and-”

            “Sam got all emotional on him,” Dean cut in. “He got all teary-eyed and was all like, ‘I know this all has to be so hard’, even though the kid didn’t look like he was bothered by it one bit, ‘but I want you to know I’m here for you, you brave little soldier. I acknowledge your pain’. And then he pulled the poor guy into a really awkward and uncomfortable hug and told him he was too precious for this world.”

            “I never hugged him! And I never said that!”

            “You’re always saying pansy stuff like that.”

            Sam scoffed just to clench his fists. “He told us whatever happened to Curtis he had it coming since he was apparently the pledge master for the fraternity and put everyone through hell and got off on it,” he continued. “After that we headed back here to try and figure out how our victims could be connected, and so I could do some research to see if I could find something even remotely related to what’s been going on.”

            “I had a theory that there really was a connection between our victims,” Dean added. “In both cases the victims appeared to be dicks. I mean, the professor was feeling up students after hours and Curtis was apparently getting carried away with hazing his fraternity brothers. But, of course, Sam wasn’t really paying much attention since he started freaking out about losing his laptop.”

            “I didn’t lose it! I know you took it because there’s nobody else that could’ve taken it! We never let maids into our rooms because of all our stuff they’d find and call the police over if they came in to clean!”

            “Did you take his computer?” Bobby asked suddenly.

            “It’d serve him right, but no,” Dean said simply as he grabbed himself another beer and took a seat at the kitchen table.

            “Well I didn’t lose it, ‘cause **I** don’t lose things!”

            “Oh, that’s right, yeah, ‘cause he’s Mr. Perfect,” Dean said sarcastically.

            Bobby held his hands up when Sam opened his mouth to make a retort. “Ok, ok. Why don’t you just tell me what happened next?”

            “There was one more victim.”

            “We didn’t see this one ourselves either. We kinda put it together from the evidence,” Sam admitted. “But this guy, he was a research scientist. Animal testing.”

            “Yeah, you know, a dick, which fits the pattern. I was the one that heard about this guy since Sam was being a bitch and took off on me again for the umpteenth time during this case to go suck face with his new boyfriend.”

            “Bite me,” Sam growled.

            “So I called him up and went and picked him up so we could head to the morgue and check out the body early this morning while it was still dark outside. Cops didn’t release the cause of death because they had no clue what the cause was, so obviously I thought that was reason enough for us to check it out to see if it was another victim matching our creature’s MO.”

            “When we checked it out there was barely anything of this guy left to even check. I mean, there was literally just an arm, a shredded leg, and a big chunk of something that I’m not even sure what it was. Even so, I spotted something and took a closer look and found what looked like a belly scale from an alligator in what was left of the leg.”

            “Yeah, and I thought he was crazy since the whole ‘alligators in the sewers’ thing is just an urban legend and not real.”

            “Obviously that’s when I decided it was time to call you and ask if you could come and help us out since we’ve been getting nowhere. And while we were waiting we decided to go ahead and search the sewers anyways. So we split up and Dean dropped me off here to look through lore books while he scouted the tunnels.”

            “Did you find anything?” Bobby asked curiously.

            “Yeah, I found something, just not in the sewer,” Dean said just to shoot Sam a glare.

            “What’d you find?”

            “When I got out of the sewer and came back to the motel Baby was sitting where I parked her, but **someone** let all the air out of her tires,” Dean said just to give Sam a pointed look.

            “I already told you I didn’t touch your car!”

            “Bullshit! If you weren’t the one that did it then why the hell did I find your money clip by the back tires?! Not only that, but when you got all pissy that night you lost your laptop and blamed me, you asked me what I’d do if you messed with the Impala! That’s proof enough it was you!”

            “How the hell is that proof it was me?! And, speaking of my money, I want it back.”

            “What the hell are you talking about?”

            “Oh don’t give me that crap! You obviously took it while I was still passed out!”

            “Passed out?” Bobby asked in confusion.

            “We got into a little altercation after I found out he let the air out of Baby’s tires. I told him I was keeping the money he dropped after he screwed with the car and he got pissed off and tried to take it back, and we ended up choking each other out. But I left as soon as I woke up to clear my head and get something to eat-I wasn’t even thinking about the money when I came to, I just wanted to get the hell away from you before I killed you.”

            “Yeah, right. It just disappeared all on its own like my laptop.”

            “Ok, I’ve heard enough,” Bobby cut in before Dean could comment back. “Honestly, I’m surprised at you two. I really am. Sam, first off, Dean did not steal your computer or your money.”

            “But I-”

            Bobby quickly held his hands up. “Ah, shhh, shhh, shhh! And, Dean, Sam did not touch your car. And if you two bothered to pull your heads out of your asses, it all would’ve been pretty clear.”

            “…What?” Dean asked in confusion.

            “What you’re dealin’ with.”

            Sam frowned just to think about it for a few minutes. “Uh…”

            “…I got nothing,” Dean muttered.

            “Me neither,” Sam admitted.

            Bobby rolled his eyes. “You got a trickster on your hands.”

            “Ha! That’s what I thought.”

            Sam scoffed just to give his brother a look at that. “What?! No you didn’t!

            Bobby laughed just to shake his head. “I gotta tell you, you guys were the biggest clue.”

            “What do you mean?” Sam asked curiously.

            “These things create chaos and mischief as easy as breathin’, and it’s got you so turned around and at each other’s throats that you can’t even think straight. It knows you’re onto it, and it’s been playin’ you like fiddles.”

            “…So what is it? Spirit, demon, what?” Dean questioned.

            “Well, more like demigods, really. There’s Loki in Scandinavia, there’s Anansi in West Africa-there’s dozens of ‘em. They’re immortal and they can create things out of thin air, things as real as you and me, and make ‘em vanish just as quick.”

            “You mean like an angry spirit or an alien or an alligator,” Dean concluded.

            “The victims fit the MO too. Tricksters target the high and the mighty-knock ‘em down a peg, usually with a sense of humor. Deadly pranks, things like that.”

            Sam arched a brow when he noticed Dean had a look on his face, and he furrowed his brows in confusion when his brother suddenly looked at him before looking back to Bobby.

            “Bobby, what do these things look like?” Dean finally asked.

            The elder hunter shrugged. “Lots of things, but human mostly.”

            Sam was confused when he noticed Dean giving him an apologetic look. “What?”

            “What human do we know who’s been at ground zero this whole time?”

            Sam shook his head, about to say he had no clue, only for his stomach to drop when Dean gave him a pointed look and he finally realized what he was implying.


	8. Chapter 8

            Sam was quiet for a few moments as Dean continued to stare at him, though he finally let out a laugh in disbelief and shook his head. “No. I see where you’re going with this, and I’m telling you it’s not possible.”

            “Look, I get it. You obviously really like this guy and you don’t wanna think the worst, but you have to admit it makes sense,” Dean reasoned. “Gabe works at the school, and he admitted to us he was at the school the night the professor was killed and that he was the one that found the body.”

            “No!” Sam snapped as he angrily got to his feet just to start pacing the room. “I’m telling you, you’re wrong! I mean, if he was really the thing we’ve been looking for this whole time, then why am I still alive?! We’ve been alone together-hell, I’ve stayed over at his place the whole night a couple of nights in a row and slept through the whole night next to him. If it was him then why wouldn’t he have taken any one of the numerous chances he had to kill me?”

            He looked to Bobby when the elder hunter cleared his throat.

            “This, uh…boyfriend of yours, he wouldn’t happen to have a sweet-tooth would he?” Bobby asked slowly.

            Sam blinked, immediately thinking of all the times he’d been around Gabe and seen him with something sweet-pulling suckers out of his pockets constantly, smothering his pancakes with chocolate chips and syrup and whipped cream, how he’d seen him pull a couple of candy bars out of the table next to the couch whenever they were cuddled up watching TV, his love for hot chocolate, and how he had just texted him earlier that morning to tell him about an amazing grilled chocolate sandwich he’d made because he was bored.

            “Why would that matter?” Dean asked curiously.

            “Tricksters have the metabolism of an insect. In other words, they’re addicted to sugar and can always be seen with somethin’ sweet at some point or another.”

            “…You’ve spent enough time with him-you ever see him chowing down on anything sweet?” Dean asked.

            Sam took a shaky breath, feeling his eyes burning and his chest aching as he shook his head in denial. “Th-That doesn’t mean anything. Lots of people have a thing for candy-I mean, look at you! You can barely go a couple of days without a pie! It doesn’t mean anything!”

            “Come on, Sam!” Dean snapped. “We’ve gone after monsters on less proof than this, and this guy’s practically got a neon sign over his head saying ‘I’m right here’!”

            Sam tightly clenched his fists as he shook his head again. “I-It can’t be him… I just told you why.”

            “What? Because you’re still alive? Wake up, Sam! He played you, man! He’s kept us so pissed at each other that you’ve been spending a lot of your time over there with him and leaving me to try and figure the case out on my own!”

            “It’s not really surprisin’ he ain’t killed you,” Bobby cut in.

            “What makes you say that?” Sam asked softly.

            “Well, like I said, tricksters only go after the high and the mighty to knock ‘em down a few pegs, but they usually only just play weird pranks on the uppity ones-like your frat boy for example. They only ever play deadly pranks on the ones they think have done somethin’ wrong.”

            “You mean like a professor that screws his students or a guy that experiments on animals,” Dean guessed.

            “Exactly… I ain’t sayin’ I wouldn’t think a trickster would kill a hunter if they knew they were onto ‘em, but it makes sense if he’s just been screwin’ with you boys to try and throw you off your game so you wouldn’t figure him out.”

            “Well, technically, he’s only been screwing one of us. Isn’t that right, Sammy?” Dean joked.

            “Shut the fuck up!” Sam snapped, so not in the mood to put up with any of his brother’s jokes right now.

            He turned away from the other two hunters, making his way over to the window and bracing a hand against the wall as he took a few deep breaths to try and calm down. He brought his free hand up to cover his face when all the little things he hadn’t really paid any attention to seemed to hit him all at once, and he let out a sound that sounded like a mix between a laugh and a sob.

            God, it was so obvious when all the information was laid out for him like this… All the candy the guy had around at all times, the way he’d text him constantly and claim he was bored so Sam would get distracted from what he was doing by talking to him, and then of course Gabe offering for him to stay the night with him whenever he and Dean were fighting and he hadn’t wanted to even look at Dean’s stupid face.

            But the one thing that was starting to get to him was why did he make him start falling for him in the first place? Why didn’t he just mess with him and Dean and stay the hell away from him?! Why did he have to make him care about him, make him feel things he hadn’t even felt with Jessica? What was the point in doing that when he was already keeping him and Dean distracted from the case by keeping them so furious with each other?

            “Sammy?” he heard Dean ask hesitantly. “You ok over there?”

            Sam gave a small, nearly hysterical laugh. “No, Dean… I…” he shook his head, “I need to get out of here,” he said simply as he grabbed his jacket and pulled it on.

            “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where the hell are you going?” Dean asked in confusion.

            “I just need some air to clear my head.”

            “Clear your-wait a minute,” Dean said as he moved to step in front of him to keep him from heading out the door. “I don’t think you should go anywhere right now. I mean, Bobby just dropped a bombshell on you, and you got that look on your face that says you’re about to do something stupid because you’re upset and you’re not thinking clearly.”

            “Hence me needing to clear my head, Dean,” Sam muttered as he pushed past him and rushed out of the motel room, his body on autopilot as he made his way out of the building and took off down the street.

            His stomach turned as everything kept running through his head from the moment he met Gabe to right now, and he didn’t know how to process this. All he could think was ‘how could I not know’, because how could he have honestly missed all the red flags?

            Gabe was connected to the place where all the strange things kept happening, he loved cracking jokes and got amused easily when he saw or heard something ironic, he’d tried to get him to ignore Dean and spend the whole day with him after the first night they’d spent together and had been trying to get him to ignore Dean and spend time with him ever since, and he constantly kept doing things to distract him and would then suggest he come and see him so he could help him forget all about Dean whenever he and his brother would get into it.

            How couldn’t he have seen something that was so obvious now that he knew the truth? How could he be so blind and let his guard down so easily? How could he let him play with his emotions and trick him into believing Gabe was the best thing to happen to him out of this whole messed up case?

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam wasn’t sure how he ended up here, or how long he just stood there on the steps and stared at the door.

            He hadn’t meant to come here. He’d just wanted to go for a walk and clear his head, and yet somehow while he was lost in thought he’d ended up making it all the way here.

            Part of him wanted to just turn around and head back to the motel, but another part of him wanted to go inside. He wanted answers, wanted to know why, and at the same time there was also still a part of him that didn’t want to believe it and wanted to go in there purely to prove that Dean was wrong about this.

            He wasn’t sure what finally made him decide to go inside, but the next thing he knew he found himself reaching out and turning the handle and making his way inside without a word when it opened for him.

            He didn’t know what he’d expected to find just because Bobby had helped him and Dean figure everything out. It wasn’t like that would magically make Gabe look different, or that he would suddenly know he knew and be waiting for him to come inside so he could finally kill him before Sam killed him. But it still didn’t change how seeing Gabe laying on the couch reading with Oreo laying on his stomach made him pause.

            The hunter blinked when the book was suddenly laid flat as Gabe looked towards the front door where he was standing, and he felt his chest tighten when the man beamed at him and started to get up to make his way over.

            “Sasquatch! I was honestly starting to think you wouldn’t end up being able to come over before I had to go into work tonight. You’re just in time too. I was about to start dinner,” Gabe said happily as he moved to wrap his arms around Sam’s neck to pull him down into a kiss.

            Sam jerked back before their lips could touch, and he clenched his fists just to look away when he noticed the confused/hurt look on Gabe’s face. “Don’t…”

            “Sam?” Gabe said softly, voice full of confusion. “You ok, kiddo?” he asked with concern, Sam jerking back when he felt a hand on his arm.

            “I said don’t!” he snapped, swallowing thickly and feeling a bit of guilt run through him when he noticed the man step back as though he’d just been slapped. But as much as he wanted to believe that small part of him that still hoped Dean was wrong, he knew better…

            “I know…” he finally said after a few minutes of silence.

            Gabe furrowed his brows just to give him a confused laugh. “Know what?”

            “I know what you are.”

            He saw a look pass over his face at that. It wasn’t there long enough to tell what it was exactly, but it was long enough for him to tell what it meant, and it had his stomach churning again at the confirmation.

            Gabe shook his head with another small laugh. “Sam, what are you talking about?”

            “Cut the bullshit, Gabe-or whoever the hell you are. We figured it out. I know you’re the thing that’s been killing people, and I know you’re the reason me and Dean’s barely been able to stand being in the same room together for more than a few minutes at a time!”

            When Gabe looked down Sam tensed, sure this meant the time for fun and games was over and the trickster was finally going to try and kill him. Of course, this also just made him realize how fucking stupid it was that he’d come here when he had no clue how to kill the thing and he had nothing to protect himself to at least hopefully slow it down.

            “…I… My name **is** Gabe, though I was given another name centuries ago in the Norse when I first started playing tricks.”

            Sam felt his eyes sting at the admission. “Loki.”

            Gabe gave an almost sad smile. “Their word for trickster. Guess they figured they had to call me something after they started thinking of me as one of their gods, and they didn’t know my name so…”

            The hunter took a shaky breath as his vision blurred a bit, and he had to blink back angry tears as he glared at the monster and grabbed ahold of his shirt and pinned him up against the wall. “You tricked me! You played me this whole fucking time, actually got me to care about…” he trailed off just to grit his teeth and look away.

            The trickster’s breath hitched just for Sam to see him shaking his head out of the corner of his eye. “Sammy…”

            Sam angrily pulled the bastard off of the wall just to slam him into it once again, not really sure if it was hurting him or why the thing was letting him do this and not really caring either way. “It’s **Sam**!” he snapped. “What the hell was the point in you doing this to me anyways, huh? You already had me and Dean at each other’s throats, so what was the point in screwing with my emotions on top of that?!”

            The monster shook his head again, and when he saw his eyes watering he actually paused for a moment before he forced himself to remember this was a heartless monster he was dealing with, something that had been manipulating him from the moment they met, and not someone he should care about.

            “Sam, please… I didn’t mean… All I was doing was messing with you and your brother, but everything else was real! What you and I have been doing? That was real… I wasn’t just trying to screw with your emotions.”

            “Why the hell should I believe that when you’ve been leading me on for days now and keeping me from doing my job! **You** were the thing we were looking for this whole fucking time, and you’ve been keeping me so distracted I never even stopped to actually use my head and think about what’s been going on here! Hell, you’ve been keeping me so pissed at Dean that all I wanted to do was just come over here and spend time with you! The only thing I can’t figure out is why you haven’t killed me yet!”

            “I was never going to kill you or Dean! I don’t kill hunters, I just screw with them whenever they notice my handiwork and come looking for me… I didn’t plan this thing with you…

            When you boys rolled into town I knew exactly who you were and what you were doing here… I was planning on cranking up the annoyance and aggravation you two were already feeling for each other, taking care of my last few targets, and then getting out of here before you guys ever even figured out what you were dealing with in the first place…”

            “So why didn’t you then?”

            The trickster blinked several times, obviously trying to hold back tears, and he gave a pitiful laugh. “Because of you… I’ve been drawn to you ever since I first saw you, and even though I’ve told myself a thousand times I needed to just stop and get away from you, I couldn’t bring myself to actually do it…”

            Sam shook his head in disbelief. “You’re lying. Even now, with me standing here and telling you that I know what you are, you’re still trying to play me!”

            “I never played you! I wasn’t supposed to like you, but I do! I thought I was just attracted to you, so I thought if I slept with you then I could get over this weird thing that was pulling me towards you, but it only made me want you more… And I might not have told you that I’m what you and your brother have been looking for, but I’ve never lied to you… And I thought about telling you what I am…but I figured with you being a hunter it wouldn’t have gone over so well, and we’d end up right where we are now.”

            “Of course something like that wouldn’t go over well! You’ve been killing people!”

            “Only people who deserved it! Everyone I’ve ever killed had it coming to them!”

            “Just because they were dicks it didn’t mean they deserved to die!” Sam shouted as he angrily slammed the trickster into the wall again.

            “You don’t know what kind of people they were!” Gabe finally snapped back. “You hunters are all the same-you only ever see things in black and white! All monsters are evil and have to be destroyed and it’s your job to do that, but when one of these things you’re used to hunting decides to take care of the human monsters it’s apparently different and can’t be justified no matter how you look at it!

            You have no idea how sick that professor was! He wasn’t just screwing the students that gave it up willingly to get better grades, he was drugging the ones that didn’t accept his offer and raping them! A girl killed herself just a few weeks ago, swallowed a whole bottle of pills, before you boys got here because she didn’t get enough of a dose to completely knock her out and she remembered everything. But no one believed her because that jackass professor was so well-respected around here, and none of his other unwilling lays remembered so they could back up her story!

            And that bastard that was testing on animals? He wasn’t even doing humane tests on them! Hell, half of them he was torturing just because they were there and he could take his frustrations out on them whenever he felt the need to do so!”

            The hunter hesitated for a moment at that before he forced himself to pull away and let the trickster go, unable to believe a word he was saying since things like that didn’t go unnoticed for long. This was all just another trick, just another shot at trying to screw with his emotions for some reason.

            “Sam…please,” Gabe said almost brokenly.

            He jerked away when he felt the trickster grab his hand. “…Get out of town…” he finally mumbled. “I don’t know how to kill you yet, so just take the chance and go.”

            “Sam-”

            “If you’re still here by tonight when we come after you, since I’m sure we’ll know how to get rid of you by then, I won’t hesitate… I’ll kill you,” he said simply just to turn and make his way out of the apartment.

            “Sammy, please!” Gabe called after him in a pleading tone, Sam forcing himself to ignore the waver in the trickster’s voice as he quickly made his way down the street to get as far away from the thing as possible.


	9. Chapter 9

            Gabriel’s body felt numb as he fell to his knees in the floor, breath coming in short gasps for some reason as he felt as though something had just ripped a hole in his chest. “S-Sam…” he choked out, knowing the hunter was long gone by now but feeling the need to try and call for him again nonetheless.

            God, this pain was unbearable… He’d felt pain before, but he’d never experienced a pain like this in his entire existence. It hurt so much, and he didn’t know what to do or how to heal himself since all he usually had to do was focus on whatever pain he was feeling and his grace would automatically heal him. But, no matter how hard he tried to focus on the pain, his grace was doing nothing to heal him.

            He was confused when he finally realized a strange sound was coming from him, and he was even more confused when he registered something was running down his cheeks and he saw a few drops of water fall in the floor. He furrowed his brows as he brought a shaky hand up to touch his face to find his cheeks were wet, and he realized the strange sound he was making must’ve been sobs…and that meant his cheeks were wet because he was crying…

            The angel had never shed tears before. He’d felt many human things since he’d run away from home and hidden amongst the humans, including sadness, but he’d never experienced it to this extent before. And what was worse was the more he thought on what he should do now, the worse he felt.

            He thought about getting up and going after Sam to beg him to believe him, but he knew that wouldn’t work. So he thought about maybe just doing what Sam told him to do and get the hell out of town before he and Dean came after him to kill him, but that thought just made him cry even harder because of how dead serious Sam had sounded when he told him if he was still here when they came back he would kill him without hesitation. Yes, he knew the boys couldn’t actually kill him, but hearing Sam would be able to do it without a second thought?

            He couldn’t bring himself to move, so he simply stayed there in the floor and tightly wrapped his wings around himself as he cried for his hunter.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Dean was nervously pacing the room as he waited for Sam to return while Bobby looked up what they’d need to kill a trickster since he couldn’t remember off the top of his head.

            Even though he and Sam had been at each other’s throats all week that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about his little brother. It didn’t take a genius to know Sam was really into Gabe and that the revelation of what he was had hit him hard, and it also didn’t take a genius to know that Sam hadn’t just gone for a walk.

            He knew he probably should’ve gone with him when he left to make sure he didn’t do something stupid, but he understood that he’d needed some space after what they’d found out. He just hoped that he’d made the right call in not going after him since the trickster could easily kill him if Sam went to confront him like Dean was sure he did.

            “Found it. We need a stake dipped in the blood of one of the trickster’s victims,” Bobby announced as he got to his feet.

            Dean nodded, stopping his pacing when he finally heard the motel door open, and he frowned as he noticed Sam’s red-rimmed eyes as his brother made his way into the room and straight over to one of the beds to lay down.

            “Uh, so, I’ll get on that and be back soon,” Bobby muttered before quietly making his way out of the room.

            Dean hesitated for a few minutes before he finally made his way over to the bed and took a seat next to his brother. “…You ok?”

            “No,” Sam replied, voice muffled from where he had his face buried in a pillow.

            “…Wanna tell me what happened with him?” Dean asked carefully.

            He wasn’t exactly one for the whole ‘talk about our feelings’ type of thing, but he knew Sam was so he wasn’t going to be a dick and ignore him.

            “…How do you know I went to see him?” Sam asked after a few minutes.

            Dean gave a small smile at that. “Because I know you. So what happened?” he asked curiously, wondering how Sam was still alive if he confronted the trickster since he didn’t know how to kill him.

            “…I…I didn’t mean to go to his place… I really did just wanna go for a walk and clear my head, but then…somehow I ended up at his apartment… I didn’t know if I should go in or just leave, but before I really even made a conscious decision I was making my way inside and I just…”

            Dean reached out and soothingly rubbed Sam’s back like he’d do for him whenever he was sick as a dog and could barely lift his head without wanting to throw up everywhere.

            “I lost it… He was just laying on the couch reading, and then he saw me and tried to kiss me like everything was normal, and I lost it… I told him I knew what he was, and he finally fessed up and admitted it-told me he was Loki… And it just got worse from there…” Sam said brokenly, Dean gritting his teeth and wanting that bastard trickster in front of him so he could rip him apart for hurting Sam like this.

            “I don’t know why he kept trying to lie to me, but he kept saying what happened between me and him wasn’t a trick… He said he didn’t plan on us getting together like that, and that he was just gonna keep us distracted with being pissed at each other and leave town before we knew what was going on around here, but he said he couldn’t because of me…”

            Dean furrowed his brows in confusion, about to ask what he meant when Sam suddenly let out a sob and looked at him as he angrily wiped at his face.

            “Then he claimed he was gonna tell me what he was but he didn’t because he was afraid of how I’d react, and I just don’t understand why he kept saying all that and tried to get me to understand what he does and why he does it when I know better than to believe anything he says! What’s the point in keeping up this stupid farce when he knows I know?!”

            Dean let out a sigh as he shook his head. “I don’t know, Sammy. Maybe he thought you were gonna kill him and he was saying that so you’d let him live. Speaking of, should I just call Bobby and tell him to forget the stakes we need since you tipped Loki off?”

            “I don’t know… I told him I didn’t know how to kill him yet so he should take the time to get the hell out of town before we figured it out, so for all I know he could’ve already taken off.”

            “You actually told him to get out of town while he had the chance, huh?”

            “Don’t, Dean. Just don’t.”

            “Hey, I’m not judging. I get it, man. You liked him. Even if you know he tricked you, it doesn’t change the fact that he got to you and you don’t wanna have to be the one to kill him. You should’ve waited and let me and Bobby go with you to take care of it after you got the truth out of him instead of going by yourself and giving him a head’s up so he could run off, but I get why you did it.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Sam wasn’t sure how long he laid there with Dean rubbing his back like he used to whenever he was younger and he’d wake up from a nightmare and cry until Dean sat with him and helped him get back to sleep, or whenever he felt like he was dying because he was so sick he couldn’t even move, but he eventually moved to get up and made his way into the bathroom for a hot shower.

            God, he felt like crap… He just wanted to curl up next to Dean and fall asleep, something he rarely ever did since he turned thirteen and decided he was too old to still be hanging all over his brother. Of course, Dean never seemed to mind unless something had happened and Sam had been the one trying to comfort Dean since the jerk seemed to think it was his job to take care of Sam and not the other way around.

            He took a shaky breath as he stepped under the hot spray of water, and he tightly clenched his fists as he tried to think about whether or not they should bother going after Gabe when Bobby got back since he doubted the trickster would still be in town. Then, of course, there was also the thought of what would happen if he was still here.

            Yeah, Sam had told him that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he saw him again, but he’d only said that because he’d been so angry. Now that he’d actually had time to calm down he was more upset than angry, and he honestly didn’t think he’d be able to kill Gabe if it came down to it. And that was stupid, wasn’t it? Gabe was a monster that wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if they saw each other again, even if the bastard had still been trying to convince him that what they had was real, so why should he feel hesitant to kill the trickster?

            He was snapped out of his thoughts when the water pelting against his skin started to feel like shards of ice, and he quickly cleaned up and got out. And after he was dressed he made his way out into the room and started to make his way over to the bed Dean was fast asleep on so he could curl up next to his brother, though he paused when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

            He looked just to blink as he noticed his laptop and money clip sitting on the couch with a red rose laying across the lid of the laptop and a note next to it that simply read: I’m sorry, Sam

            Sam wadded up the note and threw it in the floor along with the rose, and he frowned as he stared at his laptop. Part of him wanted to throw that too and just get a new one, but he knew that was stupid so he just left it where it was and pocketed his money.

            He thought about going over to his brother now, though for some reason he had this nagging in the back of his head that was telling him to look up more information on the dead professor and animal tester. He didn’t know why he wanted to do it, though he told himself it was obviously because he wanted to prove to himself that the trickster really was a liar so it would make it easier to kill him if they did happen to run into him again.

            It was with this thought that he took a seat and opened up his laptop and really started digging for information on the professor and even getting into the school server and looking through posts from the students.

            By the time Dean’s phone went off and woke him up, Bobby apparently calling to let them know he was on his way back with the stakes they needed, Sam was at a loss for words and unable to process what he’d just found.

            “Whoa, where’d the laptop come from?” Dean asked curiously as he headed into the small kitchenette and started messing with the crappy coffee maker.

            “It was laying on the couch when I got out of the shower.”

            Dean froze just to turn to look at him. “What?”

            “Yeah, I got out of the shower and it was just laying over here with my money clip and a note,” Sam muttered as he looked to the crumpled note that was still laying in the floor alongside the discarded rose.

            Dean arched a brow as he made his way over to the scrap of paper and unfolded it just to look it over. “Right… Ok, well, uh… I gotta admit it’s a little unnerving to know that thing came in here while I was sleeping just to give you back your stuff and say sorry. Hell, why risk coming here in the first place when he knows we know what he is? What’s the point? He can’t seriously still think you’d let him screw with your head again.”

            Sam was quiet for a few minutes as he stared at the picture of the young woman that had committed suicide after the school ignored her claims of being raped by one of her professors, and the longer he stared at the picture the more everything Gabe told him started to eat away at him.

            “What if… What if he wasn’t lying? I mean, do you think maybe he could’ve actually been telling me the truth?”

            Dean gave him a weird look at that. “What? No, man. Why the hell would you even think that when he’s been lying to you since the day he met you?”

            “I don’t know, I just… If it really was just some game to him, then why would he try to calm me down whenever I was pissed at you? I mean, sometimes you’d call or I’d think of something you did or said that pissed me off, and next thing I’d know I’d feel this wave of calm whenever he’d touch me. And, whenever I really stop to think about it, I can’t really think of anything he’s lied to me about. Hell, sometimes when we talked and I asked him something he could’ve easily tried to lie to me about, he either changed the subject or said very little about whatever it was. And that’s kinda how I did with Jess-I’d tell her part of the truth when she’d ask certain things, and I’d keep my mouth shut about the rest ‘cause I didn’t wanna lie to her.”

            Dean scoffed. “What, so you’re saying you don’t think he was blowing smoke up your ass this whole time just ‘cause you never lied to Jessica? Seriously? What the hell kinda logic is that?”

            Sam frowned just to look down. “I don’t know… But he said he killed those two guys for a reason. He said the professor wasn’t just screwing around with students, he was actually raping some of them, and he said the animal tester was torturing the animals. Call me crazy, but I thought I’d look into what he said, and it turns out a student committed suicide a few weeks ago because she reported she was raped by our dead professor. And I hacked into her email and the day she killed herself she got a message from the dean saying they wouldn’t put up with an accusation like that just because she was mad she was failing one of her classes.

            And the animal guy? Turns out he had to attend court-ordered anger management classes, and lost way more animals than he should’ve with the tests he was doing. Kinda makes me wonder what he was really doing to them.”

            “What the hell does that have to do with anything, Sam?”

            “He wasn’t hurting anyone.”

            “He killed two people that we know of! Who knows how many other bodies he’s dropped!”

            “He only killed those two guys because they deserved it!”

            “How the hell could you think that?!”

            “What about you?”

            Dean blinked, obviously thrown off by the question. “What? I don’t kill people, Sam.”

            “You killed those people that were infected with that demon virus.”

            Dean made a face at that. “That was different, Sam. Like you said, they were infected!”

            “Yeah, well you were gonna kill one when you didn’t know if he really **was** infected or not! And what about that time I was kidnapped by those backwater hicks that were hunting people for fun? If that cop wasn’t there you would’ve killed all of them, wouldn’t you?”

            Dean paused, seeming to be at a loss for words as he thought about it. “I… That… They were gonna **kill** you, Sam.”

            “Yeah, and they were just people, Dean. But you would’ve killed them anyways, and you can’t say that you wouldn’t have because I saw the look on your face after I untied you from that chair-you would’ve killed that kid if I hadn’t locked her in the closet.”

            “She was a freaking psycho like the rest of her fucked up family of inbred hillbillies! If anything, that crazy little bitch at least deserved to have her ass kicked!” Dean snapped.

            “Yeah, but she was still just a person. How’s that any different from Gabe?”

            “Oh my god, we’re not seriously having this conversation, right? How the hell could you compare me to him?! He’s a **monster** , Sam! You can’t trust a single thing he says!” Dean reasoned.

            “I don’t know, ok!” Sam finally snapped just to tightly clench his fists as he looked down. “I just don’t get why we’re looking at this whole thing in black and white when it’s not that simple.”

            “Not that-are you kidding me?! It is that simple! This thing kills people for shits and giggles, and you’re letting yourself believe this crap story about only killing people that deserve it or some shit just because you found a few things that sound like it’s a possibility he was telling the truth about the two guys he killed here. And even if he is, that doesn’t mean all the other people he’s killed did anything to really deserve it!” Dean pointed out just to finally stop and take a deep breath to calm himself down as he made his way over and plopped down on the couch next to Sam.

            “Look, I get that this is hard for you, but you can’t let him get into your head like this,” he said softly as he reached over and closed the laptop. “You’re not doing yourself any favors by driving yourself crazy with this. He lied to you, Sammy. He **used** you, and he’s still trying to screw with you even now because it’s easy to see there’s still a part of you that’s desperate to believe his bullshit.”

            Sam took a shaky breath as he gave a slow nod, blinking to try and stop the burning in his eyes. “Yeah… You’re right…”

            “…You want me and Bobby to take care of it ourselves? I mean, chances are the bastard’s already skipped town, but in case he’s still here we can go and take care of it so you don’t have to.”

            “I… No, I-I need to be there in case you guys need back up… I can handle it… He’s a monster, right? So it’s just like any other job,” Sam said with a weak smile as a few tears escaped him, glancing to his brother when he felt him wipe at his cheek with his shirt sleeve.

            “Except it’s not… Seriously, Sammy, stay here. You don’t have to see him again, and you don’t have to kill him. I’ll take care of it.”

            Sam picked at his jeans as he thought it over for a few minutes before slowly shaking his head. “No, I should go with you.”

            “Sam-”

            “I said no, Dean! I can’t just…” Sam trailed off just to shake his head. “I’m going with you. I just wanna make sure I’m there in case things get out of hand.”

            “Yeah? For who?”

            Sam blinked just to look to his brother in surprise. “What?”

            “I know that look, Sam. That’s the same one you gave me when you didn’t want me to help Gordon take out that nest of vampires. You don’t want us to kill the trickster.”

            Sam scoffed. “I-I never said that!”

            “You don’t have to say it! Even though you know I’m right about that thing, you don’t want us to kill him! I can’t risk you being there with us if we actually find him since your head’s not in the right place right now, and that kinda thing is what gets you killed!”

            They both looked to the door when they heard a knock, and when Sam got to his feet he noticed Dean shoot him a glare before he opened the door and Bobby handed him a stake and tossed another one to Sam.

            “We ready to go lookin’ for this thing?” Bobby asked as he looked between the brothers and noticed how tense they looked. “Somethin’ wrong?”

            “No. Let’s go. It’s just gonna be you and me on this one. Sam’s staying here,” Dean informed him as he started to push past the elder hunter.

            Sam thought about protesting, but when he stopped to think about it wasn’t it honestly better if he stayed behind? Dean was right… Even knowing what Gabe was, he felt conflicted at the thought of actually killing him.

            It made sense that the trickster was a liar and just wanted him feeling like this so they wouldn’t kill him or try and come after him if he’d already left town, and Sam wanted to be pissed and wanted a chance to confront Gabe again and make him pay for making him feel like this…but more than anything he couldn’t help but want what they had to have been real…

            Maybe it was stupid, and maybe it was the child equivalent of thinking nothing could hurt you if you just pulled the covers over your head, but if he stayed here he could pretend it had meant something. And he knew if Dean and Bobby did actually find the trickster that Dean wouldn’t say anything-would probably lie to his face so he wouldn’t have to think about them killing Gabe, so he’d still be able to pretend… He’d be able to pretend he actually meant as much to him as Gabe had meant to him, and he’d be able to pretend there was a chance he’d see him again and Gabe could somehow prove everything to him and they’d be able to work it out and be ok…

            It was because of this thought that he let Dean walk away and he didn’t make a move to stop Bobby from closing the door. He just sat back down and brought his hands up to cover his face as he tried to stop thinking about Gabe and sort out his clusterfuck of emotions.


	10. Chapter 10

            Gabriel was at a loss for what to do now. Logically speaking he should just take off and find some other town to start handing out just desserts, but something had him going to the Winchesters’ hotel to give back Sam’s laptop and money and leave a note saying he was sorry. He even found himself conjuring up a rose and laying it across the lid of the laptop even though he knew there was no point in doing that.

            After that was done he’d wanted to leave, but then he saw Sam come out of the bathroom and he froze. His eyes followed the hunter and watched him pick up the rose and his note, and his chest ached to see him crumple the note and throw it in the floor along with the rose. He wanted to uncloak himself and tell him he was sorry all over again, but what would be the point? Sam had already made it perfectly clear how he felt about him now…

            Even so, he couldn’t help but stay in the room and watch as the kid got on his laptop and started looking something up. And after Dean woke up and started talking to Sam the angel found himself in shock to hear Sam asking about there being a possibility that he hadn’t been lied to.

            Gabriel was so confused, unable to believe what he was hearing as the brothers got into a bit of an argument and Sam was actually defending him even though he thought for sure the kid hated his guts now. So was it possible he could actually fix this? Could he get Sam to realize how sorry he was that he couldn’t just come out and tell him up front that he was the thing they were looking for? Could he convince him that what they had really wasn’t a trick?

            The longer the boys argued the more it started to look like it was all just wishful thinking since Sam seemed to lose some of his conviction when trying to defend him. But when Singer showed up and Dean finally left with the elder hunter and left Sam all alone in the room, the angel just couldn’t bring himself to leave without trying.

            He took a shaky breath as he finally uncloaked himself, and even though it wouldn’t be able to kill him he waved his hand and made the stake disappear before he got up the courage to take a few hesitant steps towards Sam.

            Sam tensed when he suddenly heard footsteps moving towards him even though he hadn’t heard the door open to indicate Dean or Bobby had come back for some reason, so he immediately reached next to him for the stake only to freeze when he realized it was gone.

            “Sam?”

            The hunter gritted his teeth as he looked up at the trickster, and he shot him a glare only for it to falter slightly upon seeing the look on Gabe’s face. “…What the hell are you doing here? Decide to kill me before I kill you?”

            Gabriel frowned and looked down, the accusation sending a sharp pain through his chest. “I didn’t come here to hurt you.”

            “Yeah right. Why else would you take the only thing I can kill you with?”

            Gabriel angrily crossed his arms and shot him a small glare at that. “Maybe because I didn’t want you staking me as soon as you saw me. You can’t say you wouldn’t have either ‘cause I saw you going for it.”

            Sam scoffed. “Well, gee, I wonder why that is. You wait until I’m alone then sneak up on me, and you honestly think that shouldn’t call for me to feel the need to protect myself?”

            “Once again, I’m not here to hurt you.”

            “And I should just believe you because you say so?!” Sam snapped.

            He eyed the trickster warily when he noticed he appeared to be in thought, and he tensed when he saw him raise a hand and snap his fingers. When nothing happened he furrowed his brows in confusion, about to ask what the hell he just did, only to blink when he realized the stake was in his lap.

            “What the hell is this?”

            Gabriel let out a tired sigh as he took a seat across from the hunter. “I figured I might get lucky and you won’t want to stake me right off the bat if I gave it back.”

            Sam blinked in surprise, honestly not sure how to take that since Gabe had sounded sincere instead of being his usual sarcastic/snarky self. “…What do you want?” he finally asked.

            The angel gave a weak smile. “Honestly? I have no idea… I just came here to give you back your stuff, but then you came out of the bathroom and I couldn’t leave.”

            Sam furrowed his brows in confusion. “Saw me coming out of the bathroom? You weren’t here then.”

            Gabriel frowned. “Yeah, actually, I was. I can cloak myself from human eyes if I want to.”

            Sam tensed and tightened his fingers around the stake. “How long were you here then?”

            “I dropped your stuff off about a minute or so before you came out of the bathroom, and I’ve been here since then. I was going to leave, but then I saw you and I couldn’t… And then after Dean woke up I heard what all you said to him, and I thought maybe…I-I thought maybe I still had a chance.”

            “Chance? Chance for what? To screw with my head again while I’m not thinking clearly? Why bother when you could’ve just left?”

            Gabriel gave a sad huff of a laugh since he honestly had no idea how to answer that question. “I don’t know why I’m here… After what you told your brother I thought it might mean you’d give me a chance, but who the hell am I kidding? You’ll never believe anything I say because I’m just a monster to you…”

            Sam frowned as he noticed the trickster appeared to be tearing up, and he was so confused he just didn’t know what to do. It just didn’t make sense to him why Gabe was doing this when he could just leave, so why was he trying so hard to make it seem like he actually cared about what happened between them?

            “Tell me something, Sam, how am I any different than you hunters? The only difference between us is that you hunt actual monsters while I hunt the human monsters no one does anything about. Do you have any idea how many abusers, rapists, pedophiles, and murderers are gone thanks to me?”

            “There’s other ways to go about it. I mean, the police can-”

            The angel cut in with a laugh. “The police? Are you kidding me? That would be like me telling you hunters that you can just lock up monsters rather than having to kill them. Oh, but first we’d have to go through what you humans call a justice system and see if anyone else would even believe they needed to be locked up even though I would think you’d realize by now that there’s no such thing as a fair trial with you humans.

            Some of you seem to think you’re untouchable just because you’ve never been caught before, and others don’t even care to do horrible things in front of witnesses because you think you’re so high and mighty and no one can touch you. Like the corrupt judge I killed a few months ago out in New York when I saw he was allowing rich bastards to get away with doing whatever the hell they wanted to with their children because they were rich and therefore good parents in his mind. Never mind this one guy was there because his five year old step daughter told her teacher she couldn’t sit down because she hurt too much because her stepfather raped her. Obviously with her being a child she described what happened in a lot more detail, but I’ll spare you.

            And then there was the mother who was being tried because her sister-in-law told the police she suspected she poisoned her four year old because the kid was adopted and she never wanted her. And after that judge let her off the hook she went and got the four year old from the hospital and took her home and smothered her with a pillow. And that’s just two cases out of thousands he’s judged, so I’m sure you could imagine how much worse some of them were.

            You really think a man like that, with that much power over people, should have just kept on as he was? That kids should’ve just kept suffering and being unable to tell someone when they were being hurt because that sorry bastard thought that those kids had nothing to complain about because their parents were rich and could give them anything they could ever want?”

            Sam was stunned into silence, unable to think of anything he could possibly say to that when he honestly hadn’t even stopped to think about something like that. Yes, Gabe had told him why he’d killed that professor and animal tester here, but he hadn’t even stopped to think about what other kinds of people the trickster could’ve killed.

            He’d been studying law when he was at Stanford, so he knew it was true that the system wasn’t perfect, and he’d even heard a few cases about corrupted law enforcement and even judges, but those cases rarely ever actually went to trial. Obviously it was documented that there just wasn’t sufficient evidence for a trial, but Sam had always suspected that was because a fellow law enforcer had helped get rid of evidence or they’d even asked for one of their friends to do them a favor and get them out of it.

            Sam blinked and looked up when he saw movement, and he furrowed his brows as he saw Gabe head over to a window and stare out at the rain lightly peppering the glass.

            “Why am I even bothering trying to get you to understand when you think I’m a liar?” he heard the man mutter under his breath.

            “Why are you trying so hard? What do you need me to believe you for?”

            Gabriel let out a frustrated huff, once again finding it hard to explain the reasons for his actions when he didn’t even understand it himself. “I don’t know! I… It shouldn’t matter to me what you think of me because it’s never mattered before what you hunters have thought, but it does matter… I wish it didn’t. If I didn’t care then I could’ve erased your memory of this case days ago so you and your brother wouldn’t even realize there was a case here, and you would’ve left because you wouldn’t have a reason to stick around if you didn’t think there was a case here.”

            “…Wait, I don’t understand. You could’ve erased our memories about there being a case here?”

            “Yes.”

            “Then why wouldn’t you?”

            “Because then you would’ve forgotten **me**! We never would’ve met if you hadn’t come to the school that night to get information about the professor, and if you didn’t even remember me then you would’ve had even less of a reason for sticking around…”

            “Why would it matter if I remembered you or stuck around or not?” Sam couldn’t help but ask, utterly confused about why he would go to such lengths if this was all just supposed to be one big joke.

            The wayward angel let out a sad sigh. “Because, like I said when you confronted me at my place, I like you… I thought it was just a silly little attraction, and when I realized you seemed to be equally attracted to me I figured why not mix a little pleasure with business.

            It was supposed to just be a little extra fun I could have while you buckos were in town, but this pull you have on me is so much stronger than what I thought… I’ve never felt anything like this for anyone before. I actually care about how you’re feeling, and when you’re upset it’s almost like I can feel it, and that honestly scares the hell out of me because I’ve never had that happen before.”

            Sam was quiet as he let everything sink in. He tried to rationalize why this could still be part of some kind of trick, but the more he thought on it the more he had to ask himself why the trickster would bother doing something so pointless.

            What would be the point of him coming here to continue to try and trick him so he wouldn’t kill him when he could’ve easily left after he had confronted him earlier? And why would he try to keep a trick going if it was obvious it wasn’t going to work when he had the type of personality that would suggest he’d get bored with trying something that wasn’t working to the point he’d simply move on to something else that caught his interest?

            “…Ok, so let’s say you really are telling me the truth about what happened between us not being just you playing me. What’s the point in telling me, huh? What do you expect is gonna happen if I believe you?” Sam finally asked. “It’s still not gonna change anything. I’m a hunter, and you’re a… You’re not human.”

            Gabriel thought about that for a moment, not sure why part of him felt sick to hear him say that when he’d already known deep down that it wouldn’t change anything for him to come here and try to explain himself. He finally gave a small shrug and decided to answer as honestly as he could. “I didn’t really expect it to change anything. I guess I just hoped if I could get you to understand then maybe at least you wouldn’t hate me… I suppose that’s pretty stupid, huh?” he asked with a sad laugh.

            Sam wasn’t sure what to say to that. He supposed it made sense in a way that he didn’t want him to hate him, but at the same time he didn’t see the point when it wasn’t like they could be anything to each other after this.

            He finally let out a tired sigh and made his way over to the trickster to lean against the wall next to him and stare out the window. “It’s not really stupid,” he finally said.

            “Really?” Gabriel asked in surprise.

            “No… And I don’t hate you. I’m pissed, yeah, but I don’t hate you. I mean, you’re right that it’s not like you could just come out and tell me you were the thing going on a killing spree around here when we…well, you know.”

            Sam turned his gaze to the creature next to him when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, watching him warily as Gabe reached out and picked something off of his shirt. “Like I said though, it doesn’t change anything,” he mumbled as the trickster started messing with one of the buttons on his shirt.

            “I know…”

            The hunter felt his chest tighten at the sad look on Gabe’s face. “You, uh, y-you should probably go… You know, before Dean gets back…” he muttered softly.

            The trickster thought about it for several moments when he noticed the look on the hunter’s face, and he could almost feel Sam’s want to hold him close and kiss him breathless. It was because of that feeling he found himself moving to wrap his arms around the hunter’s neck as he pressed himself closer to him, Sam jerking in surprise and trying to pull back even though his hold was too strong to slip out of.

            “What are you doing?”

            “I want something before I leave.”

            Sam frowned, able to tell where this was going, and he tried to pull away once more to no avail. “Why?”

            “Because chances are we might not ever see each other again after this, and if we do I doubt you’d be as hesitant to kill me then as you are right now… I just… I don’t want my last memory of you to be everything that happened with us today. I’d rather it be something like what we were doing before you figured me out.”

            The hunter nervously licked his lips and turned to look away from those hypnotic golden-brown orbs. “And if I refuse?”

            Gabriel’s eyes gentled as he moved one of his hands to caress the human’s cheek, his grace fluttering in his chest when Sam looked back to him in surprise.

            “Then I’m not going to force you… If you can honestly tell me you don’t want one more time together where nothing else matters but you and me, then I’ll leave right now and give your brother something to kill so he won’t try to track me down, and you won’t have to see me ever again.”

            Sam clenched his fists at that, thinking it over way more intently than he knew he should. After all, he may not have known what Gabe was before, but he knew what he was now. He knew, and yet he was so tempted to take the offer. He was tempted because every time with Gabe was amazing, and being with him made it easy to forget all the craziness that was his life for a little while.

            “Sammy?” Gabriel called softly after several moments, the feeling that Sam wanted this just as much as he did getting that much stronger.

            Gabe’s words managed to snap Sam out of his thoughts and made him realize he’d been thinking for quite some time now.

            “Gabe, I… I don’t want one last time…” he finally whispered even as he moved to rest their foreheads together.

            “That didn’t sound very convincing,” Gabriel said with a teasing smile.

            Sam’s breath hitched when Gabe tilted his head back a bit so that their lips were just barely brushing together. “Gabe… We shouldn’t…”

            “I don’t think you really believe that,” the angel whispered against his lips, forcing himself to stay still because he wanted Sam to make the final decision here. He didn’t want to force the kid to do something he didn’t want to, and if Sam could honestly refuse him in a way that it left no doubt in his mind the hunter didn’t want one last time together then he would leave right now.

            Sam nervously swallowed the lump in his throat as he made the mistake of pulling back enough to look into the trickster’s captivating eyes, and before he could stop himself he had an arm wrapped around Gabe’s waist and his free hand was tangled in his hair and pulling his head back as he captured his lips in a hungry kiss.

            Gabriel was honestly caught off guard by the intensity of the kiss, part of him having thought he was wrong about Sam possibly wanting this for a minute there when the kid had started to pull back, but that didn’t stop him from returning the kiss with just as much passion.

            The angel gasped when he suddenly felt his back roughly make contact with a wall, the gasp of pain soon turning into a soft moan of pleasure as he felt his lover’s tongue slipping past his lips and running over the more sensitive spots of his mouth. He made a small sound of protest when Sam broke their kiss and pulled back, and he gasped once again when his shirt was suddenly ripped open and he heard buttons scatter across the floor.

            His eyes slipped closed and he tilted his head when soft lips started trailing down his neck to his shoulder and he felt him nosing the material of his shirt out of the way, soft shivers making their way down his spine as Sam’s hands started tugging at his belt. Since he felt like he shouldn’t be the only one losing clothes here he reached out to try and get Sam’s shirt off of him, and he was surprised when the hunter simply slapped his hands away and continued to help him out of his pants.

            Gabriel’s eyes widened in shock when he was suddenly quite literally swept off of his feet and carried across the room just to be tossed onto a bed, and he just barely managed to finish slipping out of his shirt before Sam was grabbing his hips and jerking him down the bed so that his legs were hanging off the edge. His breath hitched and his body trembled as callous hands skated up his legs and gripped onto the bottom of his boxers to jerk them down, and he licked his lips and tightly gripped onto the sheets underneath him as the hunter suddenly dropped to his knees.

            He took a shaky breath in anticipation when Sam pulled his legs over his shoulders, and a moan was ripped from him at the feeling of a hot mouth suddenly swallowing his cock while fingers bruisingly gripped his hips to keep him from moving.

            Part of Sam was screaming at him that this was a bad idea and he should put a stop to this, but every sound Gabe made and every twitch of his hips had him forgetting why he shouldn’t be letting this happen. All he could focus on was the way his lover’s fingers were tightly gripping his hair and simply holding on while he slowly bobbed his head. He still had the same control over the trickster he’d always had whenever they were together like this, and knowing this powerful being was willingly giving him that control sent a thrill through him unlike any he’d ever felt before.

            “Sam!” Gabriel gasped and lightly tugged at the hunter’s hair in warning when he felt himself getting close, his head falling back in ecstasy when Sam started sucking him even harder rather than pulling back.

            The hunter tightened his grip on his lover’s hips and pressed him more firmly into the bed when he felt him trying to thrust up into his mouth, and he shivered a moment later when he tasted the trickster’s sweet release. He pulled back with a soft pop and moved to start trailing soft kisses up his stomach and chest while Gabe attempted to get his breathing under control, fingers moving to caress the soft body underneath him and tease familiar hot spots just so he could hear the breathless moans and soft whimpers it produced.

            Gabriel’s heart ached in his chest and he felt his eyes burning as though he were about to cry for some reason, possibly because he hadn’t expected something like this to happen. Yes, he’d obviously expected the sex when Sam gave in and kissed him and started ripping his clothes off of him, but he hadn’t expected it to somehow change from the intense and almost desperate need to touch and taste to these sudden soft caresses and even softer kisses. It was as if the hunter was worshipping his body even though he knew he wasn’t human now, and when a realization suddenly struck him every last loving touch and soft brush of lips against his skin had him wishing he could go back and stop himself from ever learning what it was like to be with Sam.

            Why did he do this to himself? Why did he have to flirt and tease until the hunter touched him and showed him just how dead he’d been inside before they met? How was he supposed to go back to being alone when he’d have these memories burned into his mind for as long as he lived? You can’t miss something you’ve never had, but how can you live without something you never even knew you needed until you were about to lose it forever?

            He just barely managed to bite back a sob when Sam’s hands moved to cradle his face and he felt his lips softly brushing against his own before he was being pulled into a kiss that left his head spinning.

            He panted lightly when Sam pulled back, and he watched through dazed eyes as his lover leaned over to the side of the bed. Before he could ask what he was doing Sam was back up and kissing him breathless once again, and he gasped when he suddenly felt a cold slick finger slip inside him.

            Gabriel tightly gripped Sam’s shirt when he felt a second finger join the first, and this time a sob did manage to escape him. He’d tried to hold it back, but how could he? Sam was touching him as though he were still afraid to be too rough with him even though he knew now that he’d be able to handle it even if he were to take him without any prep whatsoever. It was too much having him being such a thoughtful lover still when this was the last time he could have this…

            Sam paused for a moment when he heard Gabe sob into their kiss, and he pulled back a bit to look at him and noticed tears in his eyes. “Gabe-”

            “Don’t stop,” Gabriel cut him off.

            “But you’re-”

            The angel quickly grabbed his lover’s face and pulled him back to his lips to silence him with a kiss as he arched up into him to encourage him to continue. He could tell Sam knew something was wrong, but he made sure he wouldn’t think on it long as he moved to bite at the sensitive spot just behind his left ear that always drove the hunter crazy.

            He licked his lips when Sam pulled back and he saw it had the desired effect, and his eyes darkened in lust as he watched him pull his shirt over his head and toss it across the room. He reached for Sam’s belt to help him out of his pants, and once he had the belt undone and the jeans open he blinked to find his wrists being grabbed.

            His breath hitched and it felt as though fire were racing across his skin when Sam turned his head and started nibbling at the inside of one of his wrists, and he felt his heart stutter in his chest at the look he was giving him. He had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something stupid and possibly stopping this, so he was glad when Sam finally moved to slip out of his pants so he had a moment to compose himself.

            Gabriel watched as his lover moved to rest between his legs, and his body slightly arched up into him when he felt his hands skating up his thighs. He leaned up a bit to try and meet Sam halfway when he saw him moving in for a kiss, and he gasped in shocked pleasure when he suddenly felt him slip inside.

            Sam swallowed his lover’s moans with a kiss, one of his hands tightly gripping Gabe’s thigh as the trickster wrapped his legs around him while his other hand slid underneath him and moved up to his back to pull him closer.

            Gabriel let out a shocked moan in ecstasy when he felt Sam gripping at his shoulder blades where his wings connected to his back, and he felt as though the breath were knocked out of him since the hunter also chose that exact moment to sharply thrust into him and nail his sweet spot. He never knew his shoulder blades were so sensitive to touch, and that paired with the fact that Sam was like a damn sex god that knew how to move just right to cause him the most pleasure when they were together like this had him feeling as though he could pass out any second.

            Obviously Sam, being the little genius that he is, figured out his hands on his shoulder blades was doing something to him because the next thing Gabriel knew he felt the hunter’s fingers digging into his sensitive flesh and causing white light to dance across his vision.

            Sam hissed in pleasure when he felt nails digging into his back, and he smirked when he noticed the trickster’s head fall back and he couldn’t even seem to remember how to speak since Gabe was usually always chanting his name like a prayer at this point and now all that was slipping out were guttural moans.

            He leaned down to bite at his exposed throat as he continued his slow, sharp thrusts, and every now and then he’d dig his fingers into Gabe’s shoulder blades to add to his pleasure until he suddenly felt the trickster’s hot release spilling between them. The combination of Gabe’s nails digging into his back, his thighs tightly squeezing his waist, and his muscles spasming and tightening around him had him reaching his own release just a few seconds later.

            Sam wasn’t surprised when he managed to catch his breath and pull back enough to look at his lover’s face and he saw the trickster passed out on him. He was surprised, however, that instead of trying to wake him up and get him to leave like he should be doing, he was lightly running his hands over his body and placing soft kisses along his neck and shoulder.

            He stayed like this for several minutes before Gabe’s eyes started fluttering open and he made a cute little sound in the back of his throat. Sam smiled and leaned down for a soft kiss before he finally slipped out of bed and made his way into the bathroom to clean himself up a bit, and he made it back out to the bedroom a few minutes later with a warm towel to wipe his lover down.

            He froze when he made it out into the room and he saw the bed was empty, and when he looked around he saw Gabe’s clothes were gone and even the buttons from his shirt that should’ve been scattered across the floor were nowhere to be seen. He felt his chest tighten as he made his way over to the bed and he saw a single red rose laying on his pillow, and he let out a shaky breath as he tried to keep himself composed.

            He wasn’t sure why he was feeling like this when he knew it wasn’t like Gabe could stick around when Dean and Bobby could decide any minute that they weren’t going to find the trickster and should just head back to the motel. And even if they didn’t have to worry about the other hunters he knew that there was no point in Gabe staying any longer than he already had…so why did he feel like he’d just lost his chance to have something he never even realized he needed until he walked out of that bathroom and saw the trickster was already gone?

            It wasn’t like they could’ve continued whatever this thing between them was when he was a hunter and Gabe was a demi-god, so why the hell did it hurt so much to know that he didn’t even have the chance to consider asking him to at least keep his phone so he could keep in contact if he ever decided he didn’t care that one of them wasn’t human?


	11. Epilogue

            Dean let out a frustrated sigh as he made his way into the motel to get Sam. He couldn’t really say he was surprised he and Bobby couldn’t find any trace of the trickster when they went looking for him, and honestly he would’ve found it pretty damn suspicious if they had, but he just wished they could’ve taken care of it so there’d be no chance he and Sam could run into the bastard again in the future. He was just glad Bobby had agreed that if he found any sign of the trickster he’d contact some other hunters to take care of it, so at least that slightly lessened the chances of him and Sam being the ones to have to deal with him any time soon.

            Dean froze when he made his way into the motel room and he saw Sam buttoning up his shirt, the window open even though it was still pouring outside, Sam’s bed looking as though someone just got done having a roll in the sack, and was that a hickey on his brother’s neck?

            He crossed his arms and just stared as Sam resolutely ignored him, part of him wanting to ask what in the hell was wrong with him since he could connect the dots and figure out what happened here while he was gone, while another part of him just wanted to pull Sam into a hug and tell him it would be ok because he hadn’t seen that look on the kid’s face since Jessica.

            “Where’s Bobby?” Sam asked suddenly.

            “Left already. Got a call from some dude named Rufus that needed his help.”

            He watched as Sam slowly nodded and finished doing up his shirt and started getting his stuff together, and when he finally couldn’t take the silence anymore he asked, “You ok there, Sammy?”

            Sam paused for a moment and appeared to think about it before he gave a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

            Dean frowned. “You’re normally a better liar than this.”

            “I’m not lying. I’m fine.”

            “Sam-”

            “I said I’m fine!” Sam snapped, taking a shaky breath and obviously trying to compose himself as he zipped up his duffel-bag. “Can we just get out of here? I wanna put as much distance between us and this place as we can.”

            Dean wasn’t about to argue with that since he was pretty damn sick of this place after the week they had, so he followed his brother out to the car and left him alone for a bit as he pulled out of the parking lot and just started driving with no particular spot in mind.

            “…You, uh, you wanna talk about it?” he finally asked after he noticed Sam quickly wipe at his eyes and turn to stare out his window.

            “There’s nothing to talk about.”

            “You do remember I’m the one who taught your ass how to lie, right? That means I know when you’re full of it.”

            Sam let out a small huff of a laugh and shook his head. “What do you want me to say, Dean? That I’m not ok? That I wish we never found that damn case in the first place? That I feel like I fucked up in a big way?”

            “Hey, come on, it’s not your fault. I mean, you didn’t know what he was when we met him so you started to care about him when you two started hooking up. You didn’t fuck up just ‘cause you didn’t kill him when he came to see you. Hell, if I was in your position I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it myself either.”

            “That’s not why I feel like I fucked up, Dean.”

            “Well, then why do you feel like that?”

            “…Does it really matter?”

            “It does to me.”

            Sam let out a sad sigh. “Fine… I feel like that because I thought I could just forget about everything that happened with him, and then he was gone and I felt like I’d just lost Jess all over again.”

            Dean blinked and looked to his brother in shock. “Wait, you mean you…?”

            “Yeah, I do…”

            “But it’s only been, like, a week.”

            “Yeah, well, it’s been a long week. And I know it’s weird, especially since I don’t even think I fell for Jess that fast, but…I really do. I know I shouldn’t, but I actually wish he would’ve stayed long enough for me to tell him to keep his number and just give me some time since I can seriously see where he’s coming from about the people he’s killed. But that’s crazy, right? I mean, how the hell would that even work when I’m a hunter and he’s…Gabe?”

            Dean let out a small laugh and shook his head, honestly at a loss for words at the moment. “I, uh, ha. I really don’t know what to tell you, man,” he finally muttered, glancing to Sam when he saw him look down out of the corner of his eye.

            “But, uh, if we ever happen to run into him again, I might not mind stepping back and letting you take the lead.”

            Sam looked at him shock. “What?”

            “Well, I mean, I had a little time to think about what you said about things not always being so black and white. And even though I still don’t know how true it is, he only kills people that deserve it or whatever. You’re not dead so I admit it makes me feel a little more inclined to give him a little leeway if we run into him again and that’s what you want me to do.”

            Sam gave a genuine smile at that. “Thanks, Dean.”

            “Yeah, yeah. Now what do you say we quit all this chick talk before I grow a pair of ovaries like you.”

            Sam laughed and reached over and punched him in the side of the arm. “Jerk!”

            Dean grinned. “Bitch.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Rewriting Destiny](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10238546) by [CrowNoYami](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrowNoYami/pseuds/CrowNoYami)




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